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I'd prefer that situation to someone/people who barely passed their requirements to graduate medical school (from my experience, those are the people who are generally not getting residency slots) getting to become a doctor and treat people. Doctor shortage or not, I don't want bottom-feeders responsible for whether I live or die.
So you'd rather die from not being treated at all, then be treated by a doctor who might be a fine doctor, but doesn't do great with standardized closed-book exams?
You can still do consulting with a MD degree. Hell, some consultants can earn near $1 million per year.
I doubt they are people who graduated from med school but couldn't get a residency placement and have no experience in clinical practice or research. I work in an academic medical center and our docs can make big bucks consulting but that is because they are the established experts in their field.
Are med school grads in danger of becoming like law school grads?
No, I don't think it's similar at all. First off, as soon as you finish law school, you immediately enter the workforce with the capacity to earn a very high income (assuming you come from an elite or very highly rated law school). Other law school grads enter a very competitive environment where job prospects and incomes vary wildly and where the possibility exists that you may not find a job at all. In that sense, students graduating from law schools face a very market driven environment.
Medical training is very different. When you graduate from Med school (whether with an MD or a DO), you are competent to do nothing. In order to work in any capacity, you must complete residency training of at least 3 years, but often in excess of 6 years. You find out where you are completing your residency training in March of your 4th year of Med school, and you are contractually obligated to go there (at least for the first year, and leaving thereafter is fairly difficult). In part, it's your choice of where you go, but in many ways, it's not. It's more akin to pledging a fraternity or being drafted by a sports team.
The good thing about medical training is that for job prospects afterwards, it really is a much more level playing field than law is. While certain institutions certainly have better training programs than other and others, still, are considered "elite", because residency training is so standardized, if you come out of any accredited training program, you are likely to be well trained and will be able to pass your boards. For jobs, the only thing most practices or hospitals care about is that you have completed an accredited training program and are board eligible or already board certified. Anyone from any training program has the ability to earn an income to the best of his/her ability and your income potential is largely dependent on your practice model, efficiency, location and payor mix. It's very common for a physician with only a couple of years of experience to earn more money than someone with 10-15 years of experience. When you are a physician, you are essentially in business for yourself, whether in private practice or any other arrangement for that matter.
Now, are there physicians who are in specialties that occasionally experience a glut of providers and for whom the demand for jobs goes down? Yes, here and there, that happens, though I am not sure what current specialties are experiencing this.
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