International medical graduate

The station is almost over.

But this exact moment, the final two minutes, is where so many IMGs drop critical points.

Because they forget they are public health officers, not just individual prescribers.

Right.

So that helps.

Also, for Malaysian doctors or any other IMGs moving over here, it's difficult to establish your life all over again because you're building everything from scratch.

So what do you think can help when you're trying to build a support system?

Well, I think building a support system first of all involves finding communities both inside and outside of work.

I, I think over the years I've realized that reviewers, uh, like that, that, that we are trying to make it simple for readers.

Uh, as an advantage, I think the number one, one advantage is just that most IMGs are resilient.

You know, you've already been, um, applying, uh, maybe to more than one pla- multiple places to try to get an interview.

You have been rejected already, and research is about rejection.

[laughs]

You are going to be rejected, and you have to learn, uh, to deal with it early in your career.

And IMGs are naturally resilient, and that resilient can be a big, big strength.

And then we all bring these, um, experiences from diverse cultural, uh, cultures and background, medical backgrounds.

They are actively assessing your clinical reasoning, your safety netting, and most importantly, your patient-centered communication.

Yeah, so we're going to map out exactly what those examiners are looking for, point out the common traps IMGs fall into, and really build a framework for safe practice.

And just before we jump into all the virology, a quick but important note, this content is for educational purposes only.

It is not medical advice.

There is a preference for United States medical school graduates for residencies.

Even our IMGs, international medical school graduates, they have a harder time getting into certain residencies over others.

So one, I felt my best chance for a residency was if I went to a US-based medical school, MD or DO.

And two, yeah, the offshore offsite medical school wasn't nearly as appealing to me due to the travel versus a medical school that was two and a half hours away from my parents, from where I grew up.

It happens way more often than you'd think, honestly.

We see highly qualified international medical graduates, IMGs, fail these stations because they treat the exam like a basic science quiz.

Right.

Rather than like a test of public health safety.

So when applicants are unsure where they stand, applying to more programs feels like the safest decision.

And for some groups, particularly IMGs, that uncertainty can be even greater.

And programs are experiencing something similar.

Programs don't want to review a thousand applications for a handful of positions, but they also don't wanna miss out on outstanding applicants.

It's basically trying to hit a target you can't actually see.

That's right.

In two thousand and eighteen, Nelson and colleagues conducted focus groups with senior US medical students to understand how they approach residency selection.

One of the strongest things was that students could not judge whether they were competitive for individual programs.

But is that kind of where you're heading? Is it going to kind of build it to a point where servicing might be the issue and then transition into maybe like cash flow or?

yeah so obviously um it's um i've read your book as well and it's it's and also some other books as well and commercial property is something i would consider in the future i think at this stage kind of earlier on in my career i'm focusing on accumulation and building up capital growth you know kind of build up my asset base i think it's a different story you know obviously if you already had like say 10 million dollars inheritance or whatever you know then you can probably go straight into cash flow But I guess for doctors who are, you know, starting out, not come from that much wealth or actually I was on a call just yesterday with a doctor who's, you know, IMG, International Medical Graduate.

Often they might come maybe in their 30s or even later and they're kind of starting from scratch and not much wealth behind them.

I find I want to do residential property first, grow a portfolio and then later start you know say some of the properties maybe too much maintenance headaches or it's kind of you know you know timing as best you can a cycle from the bottom to the top and then sell at the top then you can you know buy your dream home outright or pay off your own occupier or go into cash flow assets such as ETFs or commercial property