He changed his mind and Nigeria's loss was a Texas VA's gain. The VA hospital in Amarillo needed a hematologist-oncologist. Advertisements in medical journals to work in the Texas Panhandle don't elicit U.S. doctor applicants. Foreign medical graduates like Osarogiagbon make up about 40 percent of the more than 50 members of Amarillo's physician staff, according to VA officials there. I came all the way from Nigeria 10,000 miles away.
Many doctors do.
And while recruitment for U.S. doctors is easier today, rural areas such as Amarillo or Chillicothe, Ohio, still have tough times bringing U.S. doctors on board. Psychiatry, which has the largest percentage of doctors in the VA system, is one of the most common specialties foreign medical graduates enter. In veterans hospitals in Detroit, Oklahoma City, and Augusta, Ga., half or more of the psychiatric staffs are foreign medical graduates. And at least four VA hospitals have hired psychiatrists educated in medical schools in Vietnam. But in psychiatry, common language and culture between the doctor and patient are vital, experts say.