{Medicine} Make me a perfect match!

Yesterday was Un-Match Day in the world of medical students and recent graduates. For me, it was possibly the biggest day of my career; certainly to date, possibly ever.

As I explained in a previous post, the Match is the system by which medical residency positions are assigned. During Match Week (which is this week), the results are distributed in a painfully slow, unnecessarily dramatic fashion.

On the Monday of Match Week, the NRMP (the organization that runs the Match) distributes an email to all applicants indicating whether or not they matched into a residency program . . . but it doesn't tell you which residency program. The purpose of this email is to give those who did not match a chance to find a remaining, unfilled residency program in which they may take a position prior to Match Day. This process is called "the Scramble," and takes place during Tuesday and Wednesday of Match Week.

Thursday of Match Week is, of course, Match Day. At that time, applicants finally find out where they will be spending the next 3-5 (or more) years of their life. In some cases, when applicants have applied to more than one specialty (say, neurology and internal medicine), they also find out that day what kind of doctor they will be.

It's a big deal. But not for me.

I only applied to one specialty. And within that one specialty, while I applied to many programs, I only ended up ranking one. I did this because The Chemist and I are older than many medical students and have established a life and a home and his career here, and we simply aren't in a position to move across the country for a few years. People sometimes call this "suicide matching", since it's an all-or-nothing scenario. I either get a residency position, or I don't.

I am happy to say that I did. So while Match Day hasn't happened yet, there aren't many surprises in store for me.

At least there better not be!

Signed,

Majin, MD

{Medicine} Matchmaker, matchmaker

Ah, Match Day. A day that strikes fear and excitement in the heart of every new physician, yet sounds like a kindergarten event.

For those that don't know, Match Day is a yearly event in March in which graduating medical students find out where they will be spending the next few (or several) years of their life as a resident physician. The process leading up to Match day is a long and seemingly arbitrary one, which most people aren't exposed to and don't understand. Hell, even my grasp of the concept is tenuous, and I just went through it!

The first part of the residency application process is similar to the process of applying for college or medical school itself. The summer before your last year of medical school, you research and apply to residency programs in your chosen field around the country (or, if you're like me, keep things local and choose more than one field to apply to) via a centralized application service called ERAS. Then, also like other application processes, the programs choose a certain number of applicants to interview.

Then things diverge. Rather than simply choosing the program you want to attend, or waiting for the programs make offers to you (after all, this is a job, not really "school"), you enter the Match process. In short, you make a list of programs at which you were interviewed in the order in which you want to attend them, called the Rank Order List. Similarly, programs rank their interviewees in order as well. The highest "match" (hence the term) is where you go. Period. No competing offers. No declining acceptance. No changing your mind.

And people wonder why most physicians are crazy.

On "Match Day" everyone traditionally attends a ceremony in which they make small talk, hear a bunch of speeches about how great medicine is, and eventually open an envelope that reveals the program they matched to. As I am the Stay At Home Doctor, I will not be attending this ceremony, and will instead wait the extra hour at home and find out online. I took the slow route through medical school (I'll explain later) and graduated in December rather than May, so I'm matching one year later than my classmates and don't know most people going through the match this year.

Needless to say, Match Day is coming up soon. In fact, it's on Thursday, St. Patrick's Day.

And I'm Irish.

Please let these be good signs . . . (there is more than a hint of desperation here).

Okay, that's all from me for now, lest I spiral into a hypertensive crisis and panic attack just thinking about Match Day.

Signed,

Majin, MD