Clinical Training for Students of Foreign Medical Schools in US Hospitals

Abstract

To the Editor.— The concerns expressed by Signer and Crowley in their article 1 are quite valid, but the clinical training of foreign medical students in US hospitals is not as poorly supervised as the authors try to make us believe. To give you a personal example, I attended St George's University School of Medicine in Grenada and graduated in May 1982. My clinical rotations and electives were done in hospitals located in New York State. I worked alongside US-trained medical students. Not only did I find myself as well prepared as the US medical students for my clinical rotations, but I had no problem working and competing with them. In addition to being supervised by the same faculty that oversaw the US medical students, I was regularly supervised by St George's University. After each rotation, I was given a written examination administered by St George's University and proctored by