Caribbean medical schools have long been decried as diploma mills for the rich and undeserving; they are strictly for-profit institutions serving American kids rejected by U.S. medical schools, yet they rely on hospitals in the U.S. to provide the necessary clinical experience in the third and fourth years of a medical education. Recently, however, an effort has begun in New York City to limit their access to local hospitals since there are only a certain number of spots available for such field work, and charges of elitism are flying. But how is it possible for foreign medical schools to threaten turf belonging to American ones?
Because Caribbean medical schools are first and foremost businesses, they take just about anyone able to pay, especially those rejected by more prestigious American schools. Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, for example, has the likes of investment banker Sanford I. Weill to real estate developer Isaac Toussie with all their money, reducing costs to around forty-five thousand dollars every year. Compare that to the Caribbean ones, where it can cost up to sixty thousand dollars!
And with so much money available, it’s no wonder that Caribbean schools can easily pay New York hospitals to let in their students – and no wonder, what’s more, the movement to restrict such access to American schools, which otherwise lose out.
This is the business of a medical education today.
Traditionally, what hospitals do is mentor medical students in exchange for using the school’s prestige. And though Caribbean institutions are not prestigious, they have tons of money, which is a most important consideration, naturally.
And what hospital administration could possibly refuse such funds, particularly with this economy?
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