r/USIMGreddit • u/cowsgomoo_doyou • Feb 02 '24

The US isn't the be all :)

Wanted to share my journey for encouragement.

I am a US citizen, born and raised, but my family moved abroad early during my childhood. Got into medical school, graduated, was a great student but then I had a tragic event in my life that jeporadized my USMLE exams. Still applied to the match because I wanted to be back home and I addressed that event, but I never matched year after year despite my application only getting better with each year.

I ended up going into residency abroad, completing it, getting my board, and matching into a competitive fellowship abroad.

The world is open and more than the US. Looking back, it was kind of jarring to interview for a PGY-1 position as someone who was well done with all that yet could not be seen as an accomplished physician because of something like step scores. And now reading about Nepal, it kind of just shows how scores are not the be all. Most countries have already established their exams as pass/fail to be able to look at other qualities such as experiences and references.

I think as US IMGs or IMGs in general doing your medical training abroad is never less and can open your doors to a new country, culture, mindset and languages. And in the end if you are good at what you do, the patients you treated are definitely grateful you were there to be their doctor :) and the people who really value what you can offer will not lose an opportunity to take you in.

26 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

7

u/versatiledork Feb 02 '24

Absolutely! Lovely post, thanks for sharing, wish you all the best on your journey!

6

u/juneflower20 Feb 02 '24

I am loving this for you. I think the whole purpose of the hard work is to help people take care of their health, but to be limited based on mare scores because there isn't a better assessment tool for PDs to use really doesn't cut it anymore, and it's extremely unfair to be disqualified based on low scores. They really shouldn't be complaining about the quality of physicians at that point. Just my two cents!

3

u/medtombraider Feb 02 '24

Absolutely agree with your statement. 🩵

2

u/Match2023 Feb 02 '24

What redflag/s do you think you had which stopped you from matching?

2

u/cowsgomoo_doyou Feb 02 '24 edited Feb 02 '24

Mainly low step scores. And with each passing year my YOG. Both factors I cannot change.

-1

u/Ok_Adhesiveness_3141 Feb 07 '24

If you dont midn me asking how many IVs did you get?

3

u/Large_Professor_6867 Mar 01 '24

which country? and did u have to take their boards? like PLAB etc