I heard that kids go to Med. Schools in the Caribbean because they dont have to practice on corpses. Is this true? Is the education inferior? If so, do the graduates earn the same income and get the same opportunities as US medical school graduates?
Because if it’s too easy, I may have to go myself and get a white coat.
I doubt there’s a single medical school on the planet that doesn’t use cadavers. :dubious:
If they’re so great, where are the N. American students clamoring to get in?
OTOH, if you can pass the boards, aren’t you a doctor, period?
One opinion only: our family friend who’s a doctor says that American students (in particular) go to the islands for med school if they can’t get into a program in the US. Being one of the few ways to distinguish one doctor from another before becoming a patient, he, and I, would probably avoid docs with Bahamas degrees unless specifically recommended.
I asked a physician friend of mine about this, I’ll tell you what he told me:
Basically, there is only one reasaon why an American who graduated from a premed program from a U.S. university, and plans to return to practice in the US after recieving his/her M.D. would attend a foreign medical school - his/her undergraduate GPA and/or MCAT scores were not sufficent for acceptence into an U.S program. That being said, graduates from many, but not all (I believe that there are immigrants living in the U.S., mainly from Eastern Europe, that were practicing physicians in there native countries, but are not automatically qualified to practice here) foreign medical schools are allowed to sit for their M.D. licensing exam, just as a graduate from a domestic program would.
Obviously, having a foreign medical school listed on your resume when applying for an internship or residency at an U.S. facility is a stigma, but one that can be overcome. It helps if the foreign school is one with a reputation as a “feeder” for the U.S., as the individual(s) reviewing your application will be more familiar with the school and will feel more comfortable accepting your grades, evaluations, etc. at face value. If you are able to get accepted into a U.S. residency program then, technically, your future is just as bright as a graduate from a domestic med school, as you will now be evaluated by experienced physicians based on your actual talents and abilities, not your med school transcript. I use the world “technically” because graduates of domestic schools will still have “unofficial” advantages, such as alumni connections, and will not be victims of snobbery and a lingering bias against foreign graduates that will never go away completely, regardless of how good of a doctor you become.
The prime distinguishing characteristic of the generic “Caribbean Medical School” compared to an accredited AAMC one in the United States is competitiveness to gain entrance. The Caribbean medical schools are easy to gain entrance to, but much harder to graduate from, very expensive, and to practice in the United States their graduates must successfully match into a residency in the United States from the disadvantaged position of being a FMG (foreign medical graduate) and successfully complete all of the NBME Board Examinations for minimum competence that other physicians in the United States must complete.
There are plenty of graduates from those Caribbean medical schools that I would be happy to go to with a medical problem provided they had gone on to complete a decently well respected residency program based in the United States. There are many reasons why a person might not be competitive for medical school admissions in the United States at a certain age and be a perfectly competent or even very good trainee and ultimately practicing physician years later. I’m sure most all of us know very bright people that slacked off in undergraduate and came out with a 3.2 GPA (virtually impossible to gain acceptance to a US medical school with) that decided later what they really wanted to do professionally.
It has nothing to do with training on cadavers or not, and my general understanding is that Caribbean schools overwhelmingly use cadavers.
Also, there are a few mainland programs that do not use cadavers.
As a final note, there are several AAMC schools that are geographically located in the Caribbean but generally on the same par in terms of competitiveness and training as mainland schools. I believe that they are both in Puerto Rico (Ponce and the University of Puerto Rico).
Everything you ever wanted to know and more about “matching” into residencies for FMG’s, DO’s, and everyone else:
http://www.aamc.org/programs/cim/chartingoutcomes.pdf
So spam is good for five years at least.
I hear they don’t operate on zombies.
Reported post by jonathanw as spam.
I understand the Baby Doc College of Offshore Medicine (Uncle Duke, prop.) does.
zombie or no
they do use cadavers. it has to be on an accelerated schedule though.
When I was in the 3rd grade, I think my teacher was a cadaver.
If Cuba invades, Clint Eastwood will come save you.
Zombie raised by a spammer. Closed.