There is nothing quite like Match Day – the day when our fourth-year medical students find out where they will be spending the next three to seven years in residency training. This year’s Match Day coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, so there was an added element to the festivities. Thanks to the College of Medicine Parents and Family Association and the College of Medicine Alumni Council for their support and help in assisting this year’s fourth-year class to put on the event.
I am happy to report that it was a very successful day for the 123 UNMC medical students who went through the match. All but one of our students matched in the initial match, and this student matched the next day in the supplemental round.
It speaks very well for the quality of our medical students when you consider that only 94 percent of the 17,000 medical students nationwide initially matched.
Some interesting facts from this year’s match at UNMC included:
- 16 students matched in psychiatry, making psychiatry the second most popular career choice among our students, tied with family medicine and pediatrics and just behind internal medicine;
- 59 percent matched in primary care specialties, which is defined as family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine/pediatrics, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology; and
- 28 percent of UNMC students are staying in Nebraska for their training, which is a drop relative to past years, in which 40-50 percent chose to remain in Nebraska.
On May 5 and 6, these same medical students will be going through their two final rites of passage at UNMC – the hooding ceremony and commencement.
Educating our medical students and preparing them to be successful is an enormous task and something in which our College of Medicine faculty take great pride.
Although as noted above, our students continue to be well prepared for their careers as physicians, the practice of medicine is changing. As most of you know, the UNMC College of Medicine – like many other medical schools around the country – is currently going through a curriculum redesign to make sure that we teach the skills that will be needed to excel at the practice of medicine in the decades ahead. The new curriculum is in its final stages of design and is scheduled to begin implementation this fall.
However, the decision to change the curriculum is ultimately the decision of the combined faculty of the College of Medicine. The Faculty Council, composed of the chairs of all academic departments and elected representatives from the faculty, met on March 15 and voted to advance the new curriculum for approval by the faculty.
All faculty are invited to a presentation on the new curriculum at 5 p.m. on April 6 in Room 1005 of the Sorrell Center. We plan to record the proceedings and make them available for review by faculty who are unable to attend.
A vote of the faculty will then be conducted electronically, with a majority of those voting required for approval. More details regarding dates and process of the vote will be forthcoming soon.
If anybody has any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me or Dr. Kelly Caverzagie, who is leading the curriculum redesign process.