Practicing back in the US is not a problem. Look through the phone book under "Physicians and Surgeons" in your particular little middle American town in Ohio and see how many of the last names you can't pronounce. Those are, by and large, all foreign medical grads from places like Poznan. So, without my making any snide comments about naive questions...no BS, yes, it's possible to practice in the US after going to school in Poznan.
Essentially, the first two years over there are fine. It doesn't matter where you study, the US, Eastern Europe, Zimbabwe. You have to learn the basics. The books you use at Poznan are the same as those in the US. In some small ways, it's even "better" that in the US in the sense that some classes require you to learn more detail. Whereas in the US you are taught directly to the boards, in Poznan you are taught the basics of medicine. In no class will you be taught too little. So, the question is, is learning too much, bad?
Where the problems start is first in the little things, and then, in the last two years, in the support.
In yrs 1-2 you will run into problems such as tests that move. Tests are scheduled, but people freak out, and have the professors move them. Or, you will, for some odd reason, not get a second semester schedule until you are three quarters of the way through semester one.
These things are a huge pain. Scheduling difficulties. ******ed classmates. People who really really should not be in med school in the first place getting in due to the "no MCAT" requirement, and a host of other probelms in the "admissions" process.
But survivable.
Yet, the whole enterprise is meaningless if you don't get a residency. That is, a job.
In years 3-4 the list of failures on the part of Poznan is impressive. They are all surmountable, as people do get residencies, but they really make your life harder than it should be.
The communication amongst departments is terrible. Essentially, each department (Ob/Gyn, Surgery, Pediatrics, etc...) is not aware of what you learn in other departments, and does not care to find out. So, month after month, all year long, you start with the basics. It is not assumed mid-way through 3rd year that you've been doing history/physicals for 6 months. They act as if you just walked into a hospital for the first time. You can extrapolate from this further.
There are no meaningful evaluations of your performance on the ward. You take a final, and that's that. You could have killed 37 patients, been a total penis, and as long as you ace the final, you're golden.
No meaningful evaluations mean that the Dean's Office has no meaningful way of creating a Dean's Letter for you. This is REQUIRED for your residency application, and is a summary of your performance on the ward in the third year. So, they simply don't do it.
The scheduling pays little attention to the main goals...USMLE study, and following the proper timeline in the Senior year for filing residency applications. Essentially, the administration does not know what is involved in this, and is finding out only very very slowly.
The administration underestimates how important it is for us to do rotations in the US. They view it as a "nice little vacation" we take for a few months. The work that is done in US hospitals with 100h work weeks and god knows what else, would kill the average Polish doctor in three days. As soon as he found out that he can't leave the hospital for the day at 1pm...he'd have an MI.
They also don't fully realize that we go to the US to WORK, to be part of the team. No to sit around and observe...as Polish med students do. They simply don't realize that. And thus, they are reluctant to help us get these months in the US.
As it is, we must scramble very hard to obtain the proper course credits in the second semester of the 4th year. We have to make arrangments with the professors to take course early, and other such things, to get the ECFMG certificate on time, so to be able to start work on July first.
None of this is a real problem is you take a year off to devote to paperwork, board-exam-taking, and what not, after you graduate. It's just a pain.
But to figure out how to get a residency all on your own, in the senior year is not easy. You are spending the summer between yrs 3 and 4 studying for Step 2 CK, trying to put together the regular residency application, on top of which you have to essentially write, or at least heavily edit, your letters of rec, and your Dean's Letter. Not to mention, trying to figure out the whole ERAS/FREIDA/ECFMG systems to register for The Match, to submit your application, and do it all in time to get it validated by the ECFMG so you can actually practice in the US.
Of course, you are spending your first semester in the US, doing rotations in US hospitals. So, now you've got to come to work, and actually work, from 6am to midnight, whereas in Poznan 9am was too early, and if you got out at 2pm, you complained that it was waaay late...and in any case, you didn't really have to do anything on the ward if you didn't want to, just simply show up.
These US rotations are very important both for getting real letters of rec from US docs, but also to teach you how to function in a US medical environment. A skill you will need to pass the Step 2 CS (CSA)...for which you are not at all prepared in Poznan....which you have to take in the middle of your US rotations...as well as go on residency interviews.
Then in March, you try to match. If you match, you try to convince the school to issue your diploma early so you can submit it to the ECFMG. If you don't, and you don't get your Certificate, you cannot start July 1st at the residency you've matched at.
Look at it this way. Years one and two are a hassle, but it all comes down to studying. No problem. Study. Pass Step 1. No one said med school is easy.
Year three is essentially a vacation. You can do nothing if you choose. Travel, party, whatever.
Or, study your a*s off in a very relaxed environment, and ace your Step 2, with none of the third year hell and stress the US kids go through.
Then, in year four, you have a summer, and a semester and a half of hell. After March, if you match, and have all your ducks in a row, you are on a real European vacation. Tickets to Vienna can be had for $100.
This is a do-it-yourself med school. But it is a very real med school. Much of the clinical faculty is fantastic. Wonderful doctors. All speak english. You just have to seek them out, and attach yourself to them. The school won't do it for you. If you do it right, the school can make you into a real, well-educated, M.D. But only ONLY if you take the initiative.
They will make things like getting a copy of your transcript a week-long beurocratic hell. But they are learning...slowly, very slowly...but learning.
In large measure, and in the broadest view, all these things are economic. PUMS is a business, and it's product is a well-trained physician who passed his boards, and obtained a residency in the US.
This is slowly, slowly dawning on them. 40 years of Communism does not become immediately erased. They are beginning to realize that to make a buck, they will have to pay attention to ALL aspects of medical education. Including facilitating the obtaining of a residency for PUMS grads.
Otherwise, the business will fail...and they don't want that.
People, ask hard questions at your interview! Don't worry, they'll still let you in.
Hope this helped.
Pass this on to your friends. Post it on all the forums. Get it out there! Do with it what you will!!
