An Innovative Washington Law Aims to Get Foreign-Trained Doctors Back in Hospitals

Growing up in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, where people sometimes die of preventable or treatable illnesses like diarrhea, typhoid and malaria, taught Abdifitah Mohamed a painful lesson: adequate health care is indispensable. In 1996, Mohamed’s mother died of septicemia after spending nine months hospitalized for a gunshot wound. Her death, Mohamed says, inspired him to go to medical school, and for about four years he worked to treat the sick and injured in Somalia, Sudan and Kenya. But Mohamed hasn’t been able to work as a doctor since 2015, when he left for the United States, where his wife emigrated in 2007. Before moving, Mohamed believed that being allowed to practice in the U.S. was a simple matter of passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE)—a three-step exam for receiving a U.S. medical license that tests medical knowledge, principles and skills—and then completing a medical residency. However, he didn’t expect that after spending thousands of dollars to apply to 150 residency programs, none of them would give him a chance. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I was aware that I had to take the exams—and that’s something everyone will agree with,” Mohamed says. “But I was not aware that I would not get a chance for an interview.” Now, a new program in Washington state, where Mohamed lives, could soon put him back to work. In May, Washington governor Jay Inslee si...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news