The Match Morcelized

I figured it might be a good idea to share with you all non-med people what the Match is and how it works... Here goes.

Every fourth year medical student starts their last year of medical school with just a few goals: have fun and get a job. The getting the job part is where the Match comes into play... but there's a lot of ground work before that comes along.

Starting in July fourth year students start getting all paperwork ready to apply for residency and enter it into ERAS (electronic residency application system). Grades, community service, research, letters of recommendation, and personal statements all get entered and then submitted on September 1st.

Then comes the first episode of hurry up and wait... You rush to enter it all hoping that submitting the application on the first day possible that your application will rise to the top. But you wait... Obsessively you check your phone at any bing that signifies an email and curse the first and second year students for fooling you with useless emails about post-exam parties.

However, slowly but surely the interview offers (and rejections) start to come in. You don't turn any down (at least at first) and start scheduling every one. Pretty soon your phone is not only your lifeline to potential interviews, but the only thing keeping your calendar straight.

Then come the interviews. They're fun at first, I mean, you get to travel to places you've never been before, get served free dinner (including drinks, if you're lucky). You put on your smile and have a stock pile of questions to ask in your back pocket.

The programs may be interviewing you, but you're also interviewing them... seeing if you fit. Cause God forbid you end up at a program where no one likes you or you feel completely out of place (I've very much a "city-girl"... at one program I felt immensely out of place, because they were a bunch of granolas.... nice people, just not like me at all).

After the long and arduous (and costly) process of interviewing all over the country you have to sit down and make your list... your RANK ORDER LIST (ROL). This list is a list of which programs you want to go to in order of preference. While you're doing this, the programs are making their own list of who they want, in order of preference. These then get entered into the National Residency Match Program (or NRMP). The NRMP is the agency that determines the best match between your list and the programs' lists. It spits out the answers through a complex algorithm (that is externally verified) in the form of The Match... a legally binding agreement between you and the residency program you're matched at for the coming year.

Enter the second episode of hurry up and wait. After a year of running all over the country and the emotionally exhausting decision of finalizing your rank list, it's due. This year ROLs where due on February 23rd. And we won't hear anything until March 14th.

March 14th is known by med students the world over as Black Monday. It's the day when you find out if you've matched, but not where you've matched. If you don't match, you enter the scramble... a frantic 2 day process that involves you and your deans calling all the programs and finding an open spot for you for the coming year... there's no guarantee and many spots are gone within the first 1-2 hours of the scramble opening.

Match Day is the 3rd Thursday of March and occurs at 12:00 pm every year, all over the country. It is when all students are handed an envelope that contains their fate for the following year(s).

So... right now.... I'm in that waiting period between submitting and finding out where (and if) I've matched.

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If you're curious and want to read more about the Match, I recommend Match Day by Brian Eule.

I'm so blessed.

Fourth year adventures (part 1)

GET WAYNED!

It's almost March, which means it's almost time for LAMPOON!

For those of you "not in the know," Lampoon is the annual med school roast at Wayne. It's put on by the Aesculapians Honor Society and is a charity event. This year we will be making a donation to City Year Detroit.

And this year I'm one of the event coordinators (along with the guy in the ad videos below and Paul, our 2nd year protege).

So... Gear up and get ready to get Wayned!





Who can say, "EXCITED!!!"


For more information, to buy tickets, or to make a donation, please visit: http://www.med.wayne.edu/aesculapians/lampoon2011.asp

Waiting...

Rank lists are in... which means there's no reason to be hiding anymore (at least, I hope that's the case). So, after a long absence: I'M BACK!

How have you all been? (I have to say that those I follow on Twitter seem to be doing well...)

Now, where does that leave me.... Let's see...

I'm just about finished with my Advanced Surgical Skills (ASS) course, which was awesome. Imagine spending a month with some of your best med school friends, who are all going into surgery, and the inappropriate jokes that come along with them just being your friends and add the jokes pertaining to the course title... Wowza!

Rank order lists were due on the 23rd. Which means my fate is in the hands of a computer algorithm and unknown until the 13th of March (when I find if I matched) and the 17th of March when (God-willing) I find out where I've matched.

Until then I plan on doing a whole lot of almost nothing alongside a radiology elective (read: radiovacay). The only big thing happening before then is a huge fundraiser called Lampoon, of which I'm one of the coordinators (mad props to my friend Lindsay for the amazing photoshop work!)

After March... I'm done. As in, no more rotations only waiting for graduation!

Wow, I cannot believe that med school is over! Where has the time gone?! How has 4th year gone by so fast!?

Anyways... hopefully now that my life is a little more lax, I'll have some extra time to update. (Hopefully I still have a readership :| ).

So, until next time... :)

Surgical Boot Camp, Day 1

This month I am taking an honest-to-god real class as an elective. The class is "Advanced Surgical Skills", or as everyone in the class calls it, "ASS." The class is put on by the department of surgery for students going into general surgery or a surgical subspecialty (as a way to beef up on surgical knowledge and skills before internship begins). It is the same class that they give to all the surgical interns at Detroit Medical Center.

Yesterday was day 1.

Day 1 kicked my ass.

The day started off slow, mostly because the snowpocalypse of 2011 was hiding around the corner, waiting to pounce, resulting in many people arriving late. Dr. Steffes, the surgery clerkship director, treated those of us fortunate enough to live 5 minutes away with a wonderful story about how no one becomes anything without practice. This finished with Dr. Mattos, the course director, stating, "I know some of you think this is a blow-off course. I can assure it is not. You will need to work hard this month to make this course worth your time. You will also have to keep working after it ends to maintain your skills until July."

Then the day really started... 8 hours of testing.

Test 1: 50 surgical instruments were laid out and we were required to name each one and their category. Now initially this doesn't seem too horrible, but then you realize, that although you've heard the names of them all, you don't actually know what they are all called. Needless to say, it was an uncomfortable test that resulted in many answers of "curved clamp" and "pick-ups without teeth." My categories were tying, cutting, holding, grabbing, and visualization; pretty sure those are not legit categories.

Test 2: Knot Tying. Here is something I'm good at... Or so I thought. For you non-surgical types, yes there is a way to throw a correct knot, and there's more than one type of knot. We will be taught the correct way to tie knots tomorrow. Pretty sure I got a 60% or less on all 4 exercises.

Test 3: Suturing. Now mind you, everyone up till this point has complimented me on my suturing technique. Not here, my friends. I don't think I finished a single task in the allotted 5 minutes and the clerkship director commented on how horribly I handle a needle-driver. Crap.

Test 4: Anatomy. At this point I wanted to cry out, "KILL ME NOW!" 199 blanks later, 60% were blank and probably another 37% were wrong, I wanted to cry and was barely able to pull my fractured ego across the floor to lunch.

Lunch was at least a little reassuring. All 12 of us were in the same boat, feeling like the last 3 1/2 years were a complete waste, as we knew absolutely nothing.

Test 5: The Bead Task. 1 Suture. 10 1 mm beads, 10 3 mm beads, and 10 5 mm beads. 1 needle driver. 1 Debakey and 1 Adsons. The task, string the beads forehand and backhand. This means 4 different configurations (forehand/backhand with the Debakeys and forehand/backhand with the Adsons) plus a 5th of string as many as possible forehand/backhand in 3 minutes (90 seconds each way). Also, you have to count your bead/ needle drops. It may sound easy, but my hands beg to differ. Muscle fatigue sets in and the tremors get worse.

That's all we were able to finish yesterday... but we still have yet to take the FLS (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery) pre-test tomorrow.

On the docket for every evening: 100 knots. Prepping PMP (read: pimp... but it means patient management problems). Prepping Surgical Anatomy. Prepping Surgical Skills Modules.

So much for an easy rotation.

All that being said though, I'm super excited for the month. I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to spend time with my friends as we slowly pull ourselves through the class. Generally, I'm just excited.