Right, I can only imagine what the resultant shortage would be like if they all went back home. - sm

Despite the language barrier, there is no indication that international medical graduates are any less competent than U.S. doctors.

.... All but a few states require graduates of non-U.S. medical schools to complete longer post-graduate residency training -- generally one to two years longer -- than graduates of U.S. medical schools before being eligible for a state license to practice medicine. ....

 The additional requirements purportedly ensure that international medical graduates meet the same standards as American-trained doctors. But the study authors are skeptical of this rationale for a number of reasons.

 First, in order to even be eligible to apply for residency training in the U.S., international medical graduates must demonstrate that their qualifications are equivalent to U.S. medical graduates by passing three sections of the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam.

The test is not easy; in 2008, only 42.6 percent of international medical graduates passed all three components of the test on their first try, and only 73 percent of those who passed all necessary exams eventually found a residency -- and getting a residency match is effectively an additional level of quality screening. This screening is effective, the authors note: post-licensure, according to other studies, there are few differences between U.S. and international medical graduates in patient health outcomes, or in the frequency of disciplinary actions by state medical boards.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130122142841.htm

....What is clear is that the physician shortage would be considerably worse without the presence in this country of tens of thousands of international medical graduates (IMGs). Foreign-born graduates of international medical schools now comprise about 20% of all physicians in active patient care in the United States. In some specialties, such as cardiology, internal medicine, psychiatry, and nephrology, they comprise 30% or more of all active physicians.

About 6,000 IMGs complete residency training in the United States each year. Many of them remain here, often practicing in underserved areas to meet visa requirements. Others would like to stay but eventually practice elsewhere due to annual visa quotas and other immigration restrictions. These quotas and restrictions should be removed to ensure that any physician trained and qualified to practice medicine in the United States has the option of doing so.

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/PHY-240214/International-Medical-Graduates-Key-to-Solving-the-Physician-Shortage.html

ESL - outahere

I agree. The accents are not the problem. - sm

Could not agree with you more - Lucy

It's not just ESLs that have slipshod...... - Mom22dogs

there is a difference between slip shod English - and having an accent

We could be training our own citizens in the health professions. - Or are you not aware -

Once again, where and how? There aren't enough medical schools or teachers. - sm

Just like there aren't enough MTs? - whatever

Not exactly an apt analogy, since buildings aren't needed to train MTs. - Regardless of that...

Even once/if sufficient schools are up and running, the next major sticking point is there not being enough residency slots.

.... The AAMC said the [18] new medical schools will help address a physician shortage that is projected to rise to more than 90,000 by 2020 “with 32 million newly insured Americans entering the health care system,” AAMC president and chief executive Dr. Darrell Kirch said in a statement following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

“Medical schools have done their part, increasing enrollments during the last six years in response to these shortage projections,” Kirch said. “But the overall supply of U.S. physicians cannot expand unless Congress increases the number of federally funded residency training positions, a number that has been frozen since 1997.”

For now, there are an adequate number of residency slots at U.S. teaching hospitals to meet the coming influx of medical school graduates.

But the AAMC worries that the funding may soon not be there to support residency programs for this larger number of medical school graduates in the next two to three years. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 capped the number of available slots for residents coming out of medical school as part of the law’s reduction in spending on Medicare, which largely funds residency programs.

“There are real concerns among educators about the adequacy of residency slots,” AAMC’s Grover said. “Are we going to have enough slots? We feel we have done our part and now Medicare needs to do its part.”

Consider also - anon

exactly - plus...

you posted this TWICE? - sm