Foreign medical graduates who return home after U.S. residency training: the Peruvian case

With few exceptions, reports on foreign medical graduates (FMGs) are concerned with their academic, clinical, and adaptational problems during their training at American hospitals and universities. This report, part of a study of FMGs from Peru who have completed postgraduate training in the United States in the past 10 years, is concerned with the psychosocial and professional stresses of adaptation experienced by a group of 21 Peruvian doctors who have returned home to practice. The authors discuss the "push" factors and "pull" factors that motivated these physicians to return to Peru to pursue careers in academic medicine, private practice, and government service in contrast to many of their colleagues who have remained in the United States.