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.