International medical schools can help Nevada alleviate doctor shortage

Physician assistants can certainly help rural Nevada address its shortage of qualified medical personnel (“Physician assistants can help Nevada overcome rural health care access issues,” April 21 Review-Journal commentary). But the state also needs more doctors, especially primary care physicians.

Those doctors are likely to come from international medical schools.

International medical graduates are twice as likely to practice in rural areas as doctors trained in the United States. They are also more likely to enter primary care. Last year, 70 percent of international graduates selected residencies in primary care. Fewer than 40 percent of domestically trained grads did the same.

This year, 13 students from the school I lead — St. George’s University in Grenada — entered primary care residencies in Nevada.