Why I'm Attending a Caribbean Medical School

Kendra Campbell -- My last blog entry about medical school feeling like a cloning colony generated some interesting feedback. It seems like many people were supportive of my choice while others were critical. I realized that I didn’t fully explain myself, so I’d like to do that now. I made the decision to go to medical school during my last year of college. However, I ended up taking time off after undergrad to experience the working-adult world. After an amazing stint at a psychiatric hospital for three years, I changed fields and went into the field of academic medicine. I spent almost four years working for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). During my third year there, I took the MCAT and went through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) system to apply to medical schools in the U.S. I was a straight-A student in college, and I had a decent score on the MCAT. With my medical experience and recommendations, I had a pretty good shot at getting into a good school. But then I hit a wall.

The combination of stress, lack of money, and apprehension caused me to withdraw my application. I realized that I was young, and had a decent job, which offered plenty of room to grow. All of my friends were already out of school, had good jobs, and were set on their career paths. Honestly, I was scared. I was afraid of giving up the safety of my job and the comfort involved with not having to worry about grades or failing school. I let fear triumph and decided to pursue the safer alternative of staying at my job.

About a year later, a series of events led me to realize that I had made the wrong decision. I knew that I wanted to be a doctor, and I wasn’t about to let my trepidation of the unknown keep me from my dreams. Unfortunately, though, I had horrible timing. It was too late to apply to U.S. schools. If I wanted to attend a school in the States, I would have had to wait until the next year to apply, which meant that I wouldn’t actually be able to begin school for another two years.

Surprisingly, someone at the AAMC suggested that I look into attending a Caribbean medical school. Before then, I hadn’t even considered it as an option. When I was a pre-med student, everyone had scoffed at the idea of attending a Caribbean school, and it was jokingly referred to as "the last resort" if you couldn’t get into a U.S. school because your grades or MCAT scores were too low. But, I decided to look into the option, as I really didn’t want to wait two years to begin medical school.

Working at the AAMC afforded me the resources to thoroughly investigate my options. Since I worked closely with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which is the accrediting body for U.S. medical schools, I was intimately familiar with the criteria that are used to evaluate the quality of a medical education.

After doing all of my research, I narrowed in on Ross University School of Medicine. There were many reasons why I chose Ross, but the important ones were that it had a good reputation, decent USMLE pass rates, and the fact that Ross graduates more medical students each year than any other medical school in the U.S. or the Caribbean. I talked to several doctors who had graduated from Ross, and they all had good things to say. Finally, the fact that Ross University is approved by the U.S. Board of Education sealed the deal. This meant that I would be eligible for full financial aid, and when I return to the U.S., I will be able to practice in all fifty states without having to jump through any extra hoops.

After speaking with some of my colleagues at the AAMC, it seemed that the biggest drawback associated with attending a Caribbean school was the lack of prestige. If I wanted to go on to publish research, it would make more sense for me to graduate from a U.S. school with a good reputation. But I’m not interested in prestige. As one of the commenters on my last blog entry so astutely put it, "I am reminded of one of the less noble reasons I am called to medicine -- to save my patients from having to be treated by a doctor who is more concerned about where his or her degree came from than providing compassionate and effective medical care."

My goal is not to dazzle my colleagues or patients with a framed degree on my wall from a famous or prestigious medical school. While I value the importance of research, I’m not compelled to have my name published in a prominent medical journal. I simply want to be a doctor who treats her patients skillfully, humanely, and compassionately.

To decide whether attending a Caribbean medical school was the right choice for me, I merely had to answer one important question: Could I acquire a well-rounded medical education, which would equip me with the skills to be an excellent doctor? All signs pointed to "yes."

Although my basic science education is on the island of Dominica, I will be doing my clinical rotations at U.S. hospitals. I also have the option of potentially doing my fifth semester on the island at the local hospital here in Dominica. This seemed like the perfect combination to me. I get to live on a beautiful tropical island for eighteen months while I learn the basic sciences, and I have the option of beginning my clinical education at the local hospital. When I get back to the States, I will have the opportunity to learn at many different hospitals all over the U.S.

I actually just returned from my second exam, and I’m really beginning to feel like I can make it through medical school. I have realized that while it’s important to have competent professors, adequate facilities, and supportive services, there is more to a medical education than just the name on the outside of the building. The best medical school in the world can’t turn an unmotivated or incompetent person into an effective and caring doctor. It requires dedicated labor, an unwavering commitment, and an eagerness to excel, all of which are the responsibility of the student. Medical school is a two-way process, which requires both a skillful teacher, and a student who is eager and willing to learn. With medical school, as with everything in life, you get out of it what you put in.