NW Valley Times

Landing a residency can be tough for American medical graduates—approximately 1500 aspiring doctors won’t secure a spot each year. Yet, despite the steep competition, Arizona’s "America Last" policies force homegrown medical graduates to compete with overqualified foreign doctors for limited residencies.

At the same time, Arizona faces a crisis: there are too few doctors to care for a rapidly expanding and aging population. In just five years, our state alone is projected to have a shortage of 8,280 doctors. Yet, Arizona offers just 587 residency positions a year. Unsurprisingly, our healthcare workforce shortage stands among the worst in the nation.

My bill, “International Medical Licensees; Provisional Licensure” (SB-1108) addresses both problems. It removes the residency requirement for foreign doctors who have already completed an equivalent residency abroad or have at least 5 years of medical practice experience. Removing the duplicative residency requirement allows more American medical graduates to secure residencies and allows highly qualified, foreign-trained doctors to provide care with a provisional license in Arizona.

President Donald Trump (R) has consistently supported attracting highly skilled workers to strengthen our economy. In addressing questions about skilled immigration earlier this year, President Trump said, “We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country... We're going to have jobs like we've never had before.” 

The highly trained doctors SB1108 would attract to our state certainly fit that description.

Some of the best doctors I’ve had the privilege of serving beside went to medical school outside the United States. Notably, leading conservative states have already adopted similar medical residency policies. Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Idaho, and Iowa have already championed similar bills. Failing to adopt SB1108 would punish our medical graduates and put our state at a competitive disadvantage in attracting talented doctors.

Ironically, critics of the bill like to claim that prioritizing American medical graduates for residency positions is somehow anti-MAGA. They are mistaken. Opponents of SB1108 promote a system that forces residencies on those who do not need them at the expense of American medical graduates yearning to become full-fledged doctors.

If we want to protect residency positions for American talent, removing duplicative requirements for those who have already completed equivalent training abroad is the pragmatic America First path forward to improve healthcare in Arizona.

Shamp was elected by her peers to serve as Senate Majority Leader following the November 2024 elections in which Republicans increased their State Senate majority to 17 seats. A former perioperative nurse and nurse manager in the medical field, Shamp was first elected to represent Arizona’s 29th Legislative District in Nov. 2022. A resident of Surprise, she graduated from Arizona State University cum laude in Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology. She also graduated from Grand Canyon University magna cum laude in Nursing.