Is it a bad sign if there are a lot of FMGs?

[GrammCracker]

Currently my girlfriend is at a medical school across the country and is going to be graduating a couple of years after me so I'd like to do my residency in the same city where she's going to school. I'm set on psychiatry so naturally I've been reading about the psychiatry program at her school. I looked at the list of residents and all I can say is that I'm shocked at the number of FMGs in the psych program. According to the list, there are 20 FMGs and only 3 US grads. I don't have a problem working with them but lots of my classmates and even a couple of attendings of mine have said that it's bad news if a program has a bunch of FMGs. Unfortunately, that's the only residency in the city where she lives. I'm sick of long distance and I'd really like to live near her. But I'm just concerned that there may be some problem with the psych program if there aren't a lot of US grads going there.

Any thoughts?

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[TedyBearSuicide]

Are certain that she will obtain a residency spot in the same city as well?

 

[jiy76]

Yeah u don't want to do a residency with FMG's u might catch their disease. I hear it causes permanent B.O and an incessant need to make slurpees at midnight.

In all honesty look at the individual program and how it tailors to what you want to do in your career. Do you want to go into academics or do you want to finish residency and just start your psychiatry practice? Use your own judgment,it got you into med school don't rely on stupid heresay

 

[DonStracci]

Sometimes the # of FMGs is a bad sign... but not always. I interviewed at a few that had a fair number of fmg's and really were great programs. Then there was one program in particular... it was awful, and 100% fmg's, and they pretty much said during the interview that they expect to scramble with FMG's each year.

It really depends on the program. I tried to keep an open mind about that as I chose places to interview.

 

[peppy]

The fact that a program is willing to take FMGs definitely does not automatically mean it's a bad program, especially in Psych which is a specialty that has a lot of FMGs in the applicant pool to begin with.
A lot of times, the geographic area a residency program is in has as much to do with its competitiveness as the actual quality of the program. Many people prefer to rank a so-so program in a cool, fun city higher than a great program in the middle of nowhere.

The best thing you can do is try to set up an away rotation and see what you think of the residents you work with there. If they seem like poor clinicians then that woudl definitely be a red flag. However, it has been my experience that a lot of FMGs are very smart and hard-working individuals because of the extra effort they have to make to get anywhere in America. A program that is willing to consider great-quality FMGs would look better to me than a program that is "snobby" about only taking American grads who may be of less quality but went to the "right" school.

 

[Gibbles]

As an AMG, I think I'd enjoy the challenge of working in a program filled with IMGs for two reasons. One, the majority of them seem to have a significant history of clinic or hospital work functioning as practicing physicians or even attendings, so they bring a lot of advise and experience to any given program. Second, they are most likely the best that their respective countries have to offer and it really does show. For both of those reasons, you will be challenged from day one and remain challenged for the duration of your residency.

As someone else said, I'd be more worried about a program that takes only AMGs. Nothing worse than a half-dozen to a dozen bumbling idiots trying to find their way around a new hospital and trying to figure out how to admit and treat patients on their own without any previous experience. At least with FMGs, your chances of having someone on your team that knows what they are doing is greatly increased.

 

[captfp001]

Yeah. I agree. I have rarely met an incompetent FMG. The only ones that were incompetent probably had connections rather than merit. But in my opinion, IMGs in the U.S. work harder and complain less than their AMG counterparts. They are the cream of the crop. The less competent IMGs remain in their own countries.

The issue you should look at is whether the program has FMGs due to a lack of interest in the program or whether it is malignant and AMGs choose not to attend.

Who knows, you may acquire a taste for the East in more ways than one.

 

[mig26x]

I train at a program 50/50 in terms of AMG/IMG residents (Im AMG in an IM program). The majority of IMG's already have 2-3 years of clinical experience under their belt so pretty much they know what they are doing. At first they lag behind because of a different system in terms of burocracy but medical knowledge is the same or sometimes above the curve depending on years of experience pre-residency.

 

[Haole]

Im doing an internship right now with a bunch of IMG's and holy crap those dude's are crazy smart!