Informasi dari University of Iowa, USA

Berikut adalah kutipan dari korespondensi salah satu rekan sejawat kita dengan universitas di USA.

Your inquiry was forwarded on to me since I direct the graduate medical education efforts at the University of Iowa. If I understand correctly, you will graduate with a medical degree and some practical training in 2008. Subsequently you are interested in pursuing some more specialized training.

Here are a few issues for you to consider that may help with your planning:

* International medical graduates can pursue training here in the United States, and several of our training programs have taken international residents into their programs.

* We sponsor both residency training (20programs) and fellowship training which is advanced training after residency (45programs). It sounds like you would be potentially looking for a residency program (e.g. paediatrics, radiology, surgery).

* Individual residency programs each manage their own application and interviewing activities.

* Nationally, application by international graduates is governed by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). I’d suggest that you contact them to get further details.

* ECFMG has certain expectations of international graduates such as taking a Clinical Skills Assessment and an English proficiency test. Additionally, you would need to take standardized tests from the United States Medical Licensure Exam (commonly known as USMLE Step 1&2), and ultimately apply for a Visa.

An additional source of information for you would be from the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) as all US training sites participate in this centralized process to access applications.

As at most sites in the United States, here at the University of Iowa individual residency programs assess the quality of the applications that they receive and then decide which applicants can be invited for an interview. While all of our residency programs consider applications from international students, the majority of all training positions end up being filled by US graduates. There are no special scholarships to support our residents, but all individuals in our programs are paid for their employment by the hospital (current entry level salary is $39,000).

Although this sounds like a long and complex process, every year our residencies do accept some international graduates. I’d encourage you to contact the ECFMG and ERAS to learn more about this process. Also you will need to sort out which specialty best suits your aspirations.

Good luck,

Mark