In a letter to President Trump, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
supports letting medical school graduates who are unable to find a residency program match.

They asked Trump to consider how medical school graduates who are unable to find a residency
program match could be put to work helping patients during this time of increased need for medical
care. They said, “These physicians often have twice the amount of training as nurse practitioners or
physician assistants but are impeded from helping patients in clinical care settings. We applaud
efforts at all government levels to allow medical staff to work without time-devouring, pointless
regulatory shackles. After a temporary reprieve, we hope that you will consider permanent relief.”

It looks like that idea is catching on. NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine will be graduating some
medical students early to help in the fight against COVID-19. Barry University in Miami, Florida, the
University of Arizona’s Tucson medical school and many others are doing the same.

A recent op-ed in The Hill by two physicians calls on the United States to permit any individual who
has graduated medical school to be able work as a physician, which would allow 4,000 medical
school graduates to immediately enter the physician workforce instead of having to complete a
residency program. This is needed more than ever with the current crisis and after years of
physicians leaving their practices because of Obamacare.

Even the Military Medical School, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
(USUHS), will be graduating students early for the first time in their 48-year history.

According to military.com, about 170 medical students and 60 graduating nursing students will leave
USUHS in Bethesda, Maryland, between April 1st and the 17th to support the Defense Department’s
coronavirus pandemic response.

Because the students aren’t licensed, they will work under the supervision of licensed physicians and
will do things such as screening patients and take health histories.

USUHS President Dr. Richard Thomas, a retired Army major general and board certified
otolaryngologist and surgeon said, “For COVID-19, there’s a lot of extra work for people and it’s a lot
of extra duty for the typical staff. Thomas said the new graduates will be available for the Army, Navy,
Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service surge to combat the coronavirus.”