In 1992, medical residency programs in the U.S. were described as "responsive principally to the service needs of hospitals, the interests of the medical specialty societies, the objectives of the residency program directors, and the career preferences of the medical students." In fact, there are so many more residency programs than can be filled by American medical school graduates, that an annual influx of foreign educated physicians has been required to satisfy the service needs of many hospitals. In addition, until recently, there has been no attempt to match America's needs for various kinds of specialty and generalist physicians with the hospital-based training programs that were producing them. In light of these facts, pose an opinion on this question:
Since there are not enough American medical school graduates to fill the residencies of the smaller non-teaching hospitals, would not the employment of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, or young physicians starting practice be considered first, before recruiting foreign medical graduates?