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Hello mar1999,
Thanks for all the information. It will definitely take lot of courage, time and money to complete NP program. It is definitely disheartening to see our medical degree being of no practical value in US. I was hopeful about NP but now not so sure. I think it is possible to work as medical assistant or physician assistant with a physician who agrees to let you work without certification. I will just keep looking for available opportunities. Even medical assistant earns around 50,000 with much less responsibility than NP. So it is better to work as MA instead of doing course for NP and getting paid at 70 grand. Please let now if you have any further information and about your future decisions. It will help me in making up mind as well
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if you want to work as MA assistant, contact ARMA. If you have clinical experience they can give you certificate of registered medical assistant and then you can start working if you have contacts
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@matchpossibility
i think you are mistaken about the salary of MA.... typically MA's start at 10 to 15 dollars depending on experience and where you live. 50k is the most probably an MA can make...
im looking at NP, worse case scenario, it is a career i can build eventually and they make almost FM wages when you have been in the field for a while...
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@mar1999
not all programs have the same requirements, at the end of the day wherever you study, it is still an NP license you are after
maybe Tennessee is not the right state to do it
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- what are your goals? Are you looking for a way to stay in the US, do you want to do residency in the US then return home, are you looking for an income regardless of whether it is practicing medicine vs something not in the medical field.
- What do you plan to do with the degree you get? Add it to your residency app or try to get a job with it on it's own?
I don't have the stats, but I get the feeling that an MPH is becoming the default pathway to IMGs that don't match the first time. You should ask the MPH program what its current grads are doing, specifically IMGs, and how they have fared in the Match. An MPH or PhD will also make you further from your year of graduation.
If your goal is to get into a US residency, you need to identify your weaknesses and determine if an additional degree will compensate for them. An MPH or PhD will not compensate for things like low Step scores or no USCE.
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@blueamg.My weakness is YOG, how in the world can I overcome it?Unless I go back to medical school, and I dont have such an intention to do.Or I have to have very strong contact which can lead me to a spot in the residency and this is the hardest part.I work for a hospital, know a lot of attendings,none of them helped me last year although gladly agreed.So, you know how it feels?Like you stucked in the middle of nowhere.
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@mar1999
i know exactly how you feel! just got interviewed in an off-cycle program that suddenly needed to fill spots, then the first concern was YOG and that all the observerships, externships i have done over the years to keep myself immersed however I can, was not official experience...
I didn't need to spend almost $1000 for plane tickets and hotels at a moments notice just to get there and hear something that I already know. If they didn't see me qualified, why even interview me?
YOG, gets us filtered from even our applications getting downloaded to be even read! I'm in the process of moving on.
My advice to IMG's who need to live in the US, what alternative career you choose, please choose well. Everything is not all about residency, there are other ways, to achieve the financial stability of being a doctor.
If you are going to spend time and money on a another degree make sure it is something that can sustain a life and your family. Not another unsure track that may or may not get you to residency.
Now, if you decide NP, i think it is a great alternative. NP's make great money depending on the field, practice and area you live in. It may or may not lead to residency, but with the expansion of mid-level providers, I think the NP field has great potential. You also get to continue to develop and accumulate clinical experience in you desired field. Who knows if you are still up to it, maybe it might lead to a residency position. But if it doesn't, you will be happy and fulfilled and at the end of the day, isn't that we are all trying to get to.
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