Education and Medical Licensure

Abstract

The proposal for federal requirements for licensure and for relicensure of physicians has been incorporated in the various drafts of health manpower legislation for several years. Although many physicians did not become particularly concerned about other provisions in this legislation, the threat of federal licensure and of relicensure by reexamination at six-year intervals evoked an unfavorable reaction little short of unanimous. Many professional organizations and individuals must share in the credit for their efforts toward removal of this unnecessary and unworkable provision. The granting of a license to practice a profession has always been the prerogative of the state; and this is one state's right that has been zealously cherished and protected over the years, as exemplified by the fact that most states offered their own state licensing examination in medicine until the last ten years. Gradually the examinations of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) were given broader