NY and Off-Shore Medical Schools in Race for Clinical Clerkships

Should off-shore medical schools be allowed to pay American hospitals for their students to learn from doctors?

Hear from Neal Simon, president of the Caribbean-based American University of Antigua College of Medicine.

And Jo Wiederhorn, president and Chief Executive Officer of the Associated Medical Schools of New York, says New York schools are struggling to find spots at American hospitals for their students to partake in clinical clerkships.

Wiederhorn and Simon both agreed that part of the problem with this issue is that there is no data to show that American medical students aren't able to get clinical clerkships to learn from doctors at New York hospitals, but Wiederhorn said that although hospitals may accept many U.S. medical students, there may not be enough patients and doctors available for these students to have a quality learning experience because of competing off-shore medical school students at these hospitals. She also said that off-shore medical schools take up half of the slots for clinical clerkships in New York, leaving U.S. medical students a limited amount of places to vie for.  

Simon countered by saying there is no evidence that any New York hospital has denied students from U.S. medical schools a clinical clerkship because of off-shore medical school students.