UNMC’s Match Day, held Friday, saw 116 medical students learn where they will be spending their residency.
The annual event had a celebratory atmosphere, with family and friends gathered to support the students as they learned their destinations, the residency programs in which they will train for the next three to seven years in the medical area of their choice.
To see a photo album from this year’s March Day, click here.
The pressure was off for Tyler Hitchler, who had been part of UNMC’s primary care program and already knew he was matching in internal medicine at UNMC. Still, “it means a lot,” he said. “I’m excited for all my friends.”
Dalton Nelsen, who matched in emergency medicine, said it was nerve-racking to wait to see if he matched at his first choice, UNMC. (He did.) “It’s kind of a culmination,” he said of Match Day. “But it’s also terrifying, not knowing yet where you’re going.”
From the Mayo Clinic to UNMC: See where UNMC’s medical students matched here.
Thirty-seven percent of UNMC students are staying in Nebraska for their training, and 50 percent matched in primary care, which includes family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine/pediatrics, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology.
Elizabeth Pflug, who matched in pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, called the event “a time to take a breath and celebrate.”
Students are matched through a computer program to align their preferences for residency programs in order to fill the thousands of training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.
Dean of the College of Medicine Brad Britigan, M.D., who congratulated the students on their hard work and accomplishments as the ceremony began, said part of the fun of Match Day was the excitement of the students.
“It’s the culmination of years of hard work,” he said. “And, more than graduation, it’s an opportunity to see their excitement, to see their personalities come out.”