What’s At Stake for Medical Residents Under the Trump Administration?

The new administration has impacted higher education in unanticipated ways, and universities across the country are experiencing unusually low rates of international applicants. For example, 40 percent of 250 colleges across the country have observed a decrease in applications from international students. The demographics of residency positions for medical students have also changed. The National Resident Matching Program reported that the number of foreign applicants dropped from 7,460 in 2016 to 7,284 this spring.

President Donald Trump’s executive order regarding terrorism has deterred potential residents from predominantly Muslim countries from applying to programs. Although judges have blocked the order, graduating medical students are concerned they’ll have problems entering the country. Mona Signer, president of the National Resident Matching Program, said in a statement that “residency program directors will be reluctant to rank J-1 visa applicants because they may not be able to enter the country to begin training.” Salahuddin Kazi, M.D., Internal Medicine Vice Chair of Education at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, told NPR that at least 50 percent of residency applicants are international graduates.

The ban not only affects residency programs, but experts fear that it will have a larger impact on the industry. Atul Grover, Executive Vice President of the Association of American Medical College, told The Atlantic that 280,000 — or almost 25 percent — of all practicing physicians in the U.S. are foreign-educated.

International residents are often allowed to continue working in the U.S. if they agree to work in low-income and rural areas suffering from doctor shortages. In fact, a study published in February found that Medicare patients who receive treatment from doctors educated outside of the U.S. report just as good if not better experiences as those treated by graduates of U.S. schools.

“If there’s someone who I think is going to make a fantastic doctor from Sudan, are we going to be able to take them?” Said Grover.