Surprises of Life(Singto & Krist)✓

49.Residency program news

Singto pov

Each year in mid-March, graduating medical school students across the country find out simultaneously where they will perform their residencies, which can last between three and seven years. The students have visited residency programs and ranked the places where they hope to get training. Those places have ranked the students they want for their programs. When all that ranking is done, the National Residency Matching Program puts it all together to determine the match for more than 16,000 graduating medical students from across different places.

Surrounded by friends, family, classmates and instructors, the School of Medicine Class waited excitedly on Match Day as the seconds ticked down before they could finally tear open the envelopes that would reveal the locations of their residencies ending the suspense.

Early in their sixth year of medical school, each had applied to residency programs in their chosen specialties, traveled the country for interviews and filled out forms listing our preferred choices in order. The residency programs, meanwhile, listed in order the new doctors they would most like to admit.

Both lists were fed into a computer operated by the nonprofit Resident Matching Program, putting the fate of the medical students in the hands of an algorithm that determined the contents of the envelopes we now held.

The community assistant dean for the campus, told us the students the match "is kind of like an arranged marriage. Even for those students who weren't about to match with their first choice, I can assure you it's going to grow on you."

On Match Day, medical students and graduates around the world learn the residency programs where we will continue our medical training. According to the National Resident Matching Program, this year's Main Residency Match had a record high number of participants.

Simon Donald, MD dean for medical education at the School of Medicine, teased the students in a crowded auditorium in the Pre-Clinical Science Building with statistics on the match before starting the countdown. "If I could have the official timekeeper put 10 more seconds on the game clock," Donald said. "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines."

Primary care residencies were chosen by 85 of the students, including internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. Although they didn't yet know it, 70 of the soon-to-be doctors will remain in here and may be the lucky ones will get in University of Michigan, USA, for their residency training.

After the countdown concluded and the envelopes were opened, students screamed, cheered and popped open bottles of bubbly beverages as parents dabbed their eyes with tissues and hugged. Over a barbeque lunch, they all celebrated the students' success as they took another step on the path to pursuing careers in medicine.

And then the moment arrived. Aim tore open his envelope and tears of joy streamed down his face. He'd matched with the same university hospital, his first choice. Tew matched with his first choice: St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, near his National Guard unit.

Wad one of our classmate and his girlfriend, Aubrey, were happy to learn he'd be doing his emergency medicine residency one of the clinic here.

"I secretly wanted it to be this university hospital my first choice," I said. Krist and my parents hugged me. But I don't why I was feeling uneasy.

I don't know I'm happy or sad but to say the truth, I really don't want to stay far away from krist. He's my everything. How will I survive. My professors wanted me to get in University of Michigan, but I only put it as my fifth choice. How come I got there. I know that's a best place to do the residency program. All are saying I'm the luckiest person because only I got it out of all students. Krist hugged me again and said he's so very happy for me and gave me a bucket of red roses.