The academic year is well underway and beginning to look more “normal.”
First-year students have completed their first block. Second-year students are seeing the end of their preclinical training program in sight as they start their personalized approach to preparing for the USMLE step 1. Third-year students are about halfway through their required clerkships and thinking about future career plans. Finally, fourth-year students just completed their submissions to the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), starting their entry into the residency match process.
COVID case numbers have declined in Nebraska sufficiently to allow relaxation of masking and meeting polices to more resemble pre-pandemic approaches. Nevertheless, the residency interview and medical school admission processes wil once again be carried out using a virtual format this year.
An additional aspect of the return to “normalcy” that we are looking forward to in a couple of weeks is welcoming our alumni back to campus, many for the first time in years since graduation. The weekend of Oct. 14, dozens of alums from many classes will hold their reunions. This is the first time that we have been able to host all classes since the pandemic began, and it will be wonderful to share with them the progress of UNMC and the college since they moved on to residency training and their careers.
When I meet with alumni, I am always taken by the enormous impact that each has had on their patients and their communities. It also reinforces the critical role that the UNMC College of Medicine plays in the health of Nebraskans and our country overall, as we have graduates in practice throughout the U.S. Our faculty and staff should be proud of the training that they provide and how well we prepare our students for their future practice of medicine.
Each graduating class is unique and serves as an important resource for emotional and professional support following graduation. I graduated from medical school in California and left there for the East Coast for residency and fellowship training. In contrast, the majority of my classmates stayed in California for training and practice. Thus, social interactions with them have been challenging and waned over the years.
A few weeks ago, on the occasion of attending a wedding in California, my wife and I had the opportunity to take a few extra days and spend some time with two of my classmates and their wives. I had shared a house with them for two years until my wife and I were married my third year of medical school. We had not been able to connect in person for several decades. I was amazed at how quickly we fell into the relaxed and supportive familiarity that marked our relationship as medical students. Although grayer and with a few new aches and pains in our joints, personalities had changed little. We each had taken very different professional pathways. One had retired, and the other was moving in that direction. Regardless, we each had found great joy and satisfaction from our careers in medicine.
As our alumni return to Omaha from across the country, I hope that they will enjoy the events, rapidly rekindle friendships with classmates they may not have seen for a while and remember those classmates and mentors who are no longer with us. The experience of medical school provides a unique bonding for all graduates and as medical educators it behooves us as the college of medicine to make that experience as positive and productive as possible.
Welcome back, graduates and best of success to our fourth-year students in the upcoming match!
Finally, I urge you all to stay up to date on your COVID immunizations and to get the annual influenza vaccine, which now is available.