Medical Graduates without a residency can now serve as Licensed Assistant Physicians in Missouri

Medical Graduates and Physicians without prior residency training can now serve as Assistant Physicians, and can now obtain an appropriate license in Missouri if they meet several simple criteria (see: Missouri Board ), according to Missouri legislation that became effective January 30, 2017.

This creates an exciting opportunity for physicians without a residency position because:

• Assistant Physicians can gain valuable clinical experience, and can significantly strengthen their application for residency, while working under the supervision of a senior licensed physician, in a manner similar to residency training. However, there is no requirement for supervising physicians to actively teach the Assistant Physicians, and this pathway will not advance the Assistant Physician to become eligible for PGY-2 residency openings.
• Typical salary is unknown at this point, but anticipated to be similar to that of residency positions or to "Physician Assistants" (who have different training and licensing requirements, despite a similar job name and similar functions).

This is a very new pathway available only in Missouri, and consequently few, if any, practices knew about this possibility until now. Additionally, the newly instated law is ambiguous on some eligibility criteria for the practices and supervising physicians. Therefore, there are no job openings in this category yet, as of March 20, 2017. UPDATE: 2 Assistant Physician positions have been posted on ResidentSwap.org as of April 29, 2017.

Resident Swap, Inc. has contacted nearly all physician practices in Missouri, to introduce them to this new possibility, and to encourage these practices to hire Assistant Physicians, such as unmatched residents, or persons experiencing a break in their residency training. We hope that multiple Assistant Physician positions will become available and will be posted on ResidentSwap.org website over the next few months, as a consequence of these efforts. Resident Swap, Inc. is also working with the Missouri Board to clarify some of the eligibility criteria for supervising physicians.

Should you apply for a Missouri Assistant Physician License at this Time?

It is outside of Resident Swap, Inc.'s competency to provide such recommendations, and the decision is likely to be influenced by personal factors, but here is some food for thought:

• Some candidates may have an increased urgency to apply for a Missouri Assistant Physician license, if they are at a risk of loosing eligibility soon, such as by exceeding the deadlines on time since having taken USMLE Exams (2 years), or graduation from medical school (3 years); see Missouri Board for details and updates.
• License costs $300, and will likely take about 3 months to process. The justification for this expense is questionable, if it only adds a single line to your Curriculum Vitae, without leading to actual clinical experience or employment.
• Some candidates may prefer to get a head-start in obtaining the Assistant Physician License in Missouri, in the hopes that this may lead to having first dibs on any openings, while other candidates may prefer to wait until at least some Assistant Physician jobs become available before undertaking this expense.