New York medical school students are more challenged to find clinical clerkships in hospitals, partly due to offshore competitors, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Clinical clerkships are critical for students in their third and fourth year of medical school because they allow the students to see how physicians diagnose patients, perform surgeries and deliver babies.
However, officials at New York medical schools told The Wall Street Journal clinical clerkship opportunities are a challenge to find, partly because for-profit offshore medical schools, often in the Caribbean, have purchased slots from New York hospitals for up to $400 a week per student.
American medical schools typically offer hospitals that help train students the prestige and benefits of university affiliations, rather than paying for slots, The Wall Street Journal notes.
Officials at offshore schools argue it is logical to compensate hospitals that provide them with assistance, according to The Wall Street Journal. They also contend their students perform an important public service, as they are more likely to work in underserved neighborhoods and short-handed fields like primary care after receiving their license.
But, The Wall Street Journal notes, concern over the purchase of spots has increasingly intensified as New York medical schools and offshore schools expand to meet a projected national physician shortage.
Officials with the New York State Education Department said offshore schools have not been allowed to add slots in the past two years while a committee, led by two members of the department's board of regents, reviews their quality under stricter guidelines, The Wall Street Journal reports. That process is expected to be complete in about a year.