As proliferate as they are, U.S. schools cannot meet the shortage of doctors that the world is facing, and a lot of aspiring medical students these days are looking towards Caribbean medical universities as viable paths to pursuing a career in medicine. However, seeking out admissions in the best Caribbean medical schools is n’t just about filling gaps in opportunity, there are vast benefits to studying in the Caribbean:
A Life Changing Experience
Most applicants applying to Caribbean medical universities are seeking out a fresh start to begin anew and discover their full potential in a new life. A change in distance and location does wonders indubitably, but the campus culture also has a major role to play. Not only are you getting a chance to engage with a host of diverse people driven towards the same goal and being immersed in studies without obligations and commitments that threatened to engulf you back home, you get to breathe, sleep, and eat medical school for literally two years!
This offers an unprecedented level of focus which students construe as a life changing experience. Students who fail to glean the preliminary MCAT scores required by the best US medical schools, often keep the more flexible medical universities around the Caribbean region their secondary options, where they get a new chance to prove their worth and their potential for success. By utilizing the best MCAT prep books, you can make sure you get a good score when you take it. Through academic immersion and faculty support, most of these students actually come in the top percentile of the USMLE Step-1 exam, giving them an opportunity to garner highly competitive residencies after graduation.
Broaden Your Perspective within a Diverse Culture
Even though studies, hospital duties, and classroom schedules will take up a major chunk of your living time, you can still delve in the local culture that st.kitts and Nevis boasts, and get to enjoy the mesmerizing beauties and landmarks of the island. However breath-taking as it may be, the island isn’t a resort. It is a working, living nation that welcomes all students to explore its unique identity and diverse life-force.
Not to mention, campus groups of most Caribbean medical universities keep their hands busy with local global health outreach, with some significant school sponsored programs, such as the World Pediatric Project. Not to mention, the long-standing relationships that students cultivate with the Rotary Club, clinics, orphanages, and local churches, put them right in the heart of the island.
In addition, studying in such a diverse culture opens you up to people coming from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds and help you expand your comfort zone. This can have a far-reaching impact on your success as a physician. Not only does it broaden your experience pool, it lets you amp up the care that you can provide as a physician and makes you more emphatic towards patients.
A Once in a Lifetime Global Health Experience
During the early years of medical school, students in the Caribbean medical schools get to observe and later interact with physicians during hospital days. This prepares them for clinical rotations down the road. Global health experience is gaining a stronger footing when it comes to residency matches for students. Not to mention, such a diverse work experience exposes students to patients suffering from ailments that they haven’t seen back home in Canada or U.S. Moreover, Caribbean doctors are used to treating patients with far lesser technology and limited resources that do physicians in U.S. hospitals. This hones up their empathizing capability, adaptability, and most important, diagnostic ability.
