HOUSTON – Friday the National Resident Matching Program will pair fourth-year medical students with the hospital where they will continue their medical training for the next three to seven years. Match Day culminates the annual National Resident Matching Program, which pairs fourth-year medical students with residency programs throughout the nation.
All Houston-area students will find out where they will be matched for a residency program at noon, the same time all med students in the country will find out their same fate.
Every year, there are stories of dramatic obstacles students face in order to get to this day. The three Houston-area medical schools gave examples of this year’s personal challenges:
Baylor College of Medicine
This year, many students were impacted by Hurricane Harvey, but Victoria Mitre, couldn’t just stand by and watch. Mitre mobilized more than 980 Baylor students, residents and faculty. Through Facebook, she organized relevant news related to the hurricane and coordinated Harvey relief efforts. She and classmates organized Harvey cleanup crews, which consisted of about 350 hands-on volunteers, who helped more than 50 families in the Baylor community in the aftermath of the hurricane. Mitre is pursuing a residency in pediatrics and is fluent in both English and Spanish.
Originally from Argentina, Mitre and her family have called Houston home for eight years.
University of Texas Medical Branch
UTMB said two of their students, Adam and Christine Kley, a married couple, will find out where they continue training.
“It will be the culmination of a long and winding road that included marriage and a life-changing experience in South America,” according to a press release from UTMB. “The young couple met during their medical school orientation and soon became inseparable. Realizing they wanted to share a life together, they married during their third year… Knowing they wanted to start a family in the future, they took the advice of various faculty members and took a year off to participate in a work study program in Peru, Chile and Argentina.”
They returned to UTMB to complete medical school and now hope to stay in the same city as each other for residency. Luckily for them, the National Resident Matching Program has a “couple match” preference, which provides a priority for couples to stay together… but it is not guaranteed.
UT Health
At McGovern Medical School, a lawman turned soon-to-be doctor, Blake Henchcliffe, 37, of Arlington won’t be shy about enforcing physician orders. The school said Henchcliffe was keeping the peace in Amarillo for the city’s police department when he realized his calling to be a psychiatrist.
Henchcliffe said the skills he learned as an officer will serve him well in his career, “To be a good psychiatrist, you must be a good listener, which involves listening to what is being said as well as to what isn’t being said. In addition, you need to be empathetic.” Henchcliffe sees himself eventually completing a pain management fellowship.
2018 is largest match on record
Last year, seemed like the highest number of soon-to-be doctors flocking to teaching hospitals but 2018 students are smashing that record.
A record-high 37,103 applicants submitted program choices for 33,167 positions, the most ever offered in the Match.