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You met Dr. Doug Medina in the video.

His story is not an outlier though.

Thousands of U.S. medical school graduates have earned their white coats.

Too many doctors are not being accepted as residents. Without that training, they can’t practice medicine.

In the video, Doug shared the story of graduating from one of the most prestigious medical schools in the United States with huge student loans, only to discover that residencies are going to foreign students, sometimes less qualified ones.

Question:

In a nation with a reported physician shortage, why are more than 1,100 U.S. medical student graduates not matriculating into residency training each year?

Sadly, many will never wear them.

Doctors without Jobs explores why some U.S. citizen medical school graduates in good standing don’t match to residencies and seeks to build awareness of the issue. Areas of interest include how to increase the number of residency positions and how the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) policies could prioritize U.S. citizen medical students for residencies, along with how the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) could create policies to provide basic assistance to those who do not obtain residency training.

Problem

There’s a reported doctor shortage …
yet we're turning hundreds of doctors away every year.

Our Role

The

In 2018, about 1,100 new U.S. medical school graduates were not accepted into residency programs. Without this training they cannot practice medicine. Additionally, there were approximately 800 prior-year U.S. medical grads who didn’t match to a residency.

Recent years show similar shortfalls.

Also in 2018, nearly 4,000 residency slots went to non-U.S. citizen students and graduates of international medical schools. For the 2011 to 2018 period, nearly 28,000 international and foreign-trained medical graduates were placed into medical residency programs.

Doctors without Jobs believes that every U.S. citizen medical school graduate who graduated in good standing should be allowed to practice medicine if that remains the doctor’s choice – and certainly in an era of a physician shortage.

Let’s work together to forge solutions for doctors without jobs

Whether you’re a medical student, a graduate who hasn’t matched to a residency, a practicing physician, family of students and doctors, medical school faculty and administrators, members of governing organizations or simply citizens concerned about the way we treat our own doctors, we can work together to find solutions to ensure that all U.S. doctors in good standing who want to practice medicine can.

Whether that’s prioritizing hiring U.S. doctors, increasing the numbers of residencies, a combination of those or identifying other system changes that need to happen, Doctors without Jobs is looking to bring people together to advocate for these doctors and drive the needed changes.

Please join us!

You can help in several ways when you join Doctors without Jobs:

Tell us your story if you’re a U.S. doctor in good standing who has not matched to a residency – be that one year ago or five – at Share Your Story.

Consider making a cash contribution so we can expand our outreach. Go to Support.

Let us know other ways you’d like to help by completing a short survey at Take Action.

If you have questions, please Contact us.