Monday, March 15 starts Match Week 2021. For a comprehensive review of events, see the calendar here. Of note, SOAP starts at 11am EST and ends on March 18 at 3pm EST. On Friday, March 19 at noon EST, applicant Match results are available.
SOAP is somewhat complicated, so if you have questions about the process, make sure you read about it.
I’m wishing everyone good luck in the Match. If you are a current residency client, please email me with your results!
Medical school and residency training usually decrease one’s happiness for several reasons: Happiness researchers have demonstrated that a feeling of control and the amount of spare time one has both correlate with happiness. Both of those factors are limited during med school and residency. Relationships are also correlated with happiness, and those can be squashed during medical training as well.
Especially considering how difficult 2020 has been, I want to encourage applicants to consider this happiness quotient when selecting an institution and training program. If you are able, maximizing your contentment by choosing an institution that fosters your greatest happiness is key. Geography; proximity to family, friends and community; and a location that provides an opportunity to enjoy hobbies during limited free time is significant.
Excellent training is important, but, in the end, many medical schools and residency programs turn out equally qualified clinicians. Prioritize your well-being as a factor in selecting where you might be for the next several years of your life.
During my internship, on my surgical rotation, I once spent 138 hours in the hospital in one week. If you think this isn’t mathematically possible, I will tell you that I was on call from Monday morning to Tuesday evening, from Wednesday morning to Thursday evening, in-house on Friday, and then on call from Saturday morning until the next Monday morning. (I had to stay in-house that Monday until evening rounds were over too.) As you can imagine, I was barely human by the end. How this schedule was good for patient care is beyond me.
I thought of that ghastly time recently when reading this article in the New York Times called “How Job Stress Can Age Us” written by Dr. Dhruv Khullar. The author reports on a study, “Physician-Training Stress and Accelerated Cellular Aging” that assessed the DNA of 250 first-year medical residents around the country. Researchers examined the saliva samples of these residents, focusing on their telomeres – the bumpers at chromosome ends that prevent DNA damage – before and after the first year of residency. Researchers found that the DNA of first-year residents aged six times faster than normal.
Six times faster.
I found this both shocking, upsetting, and validating. Residency training is as hard as we think it is.
What I would strongly recommend is that you compare residency programs’ hours before you create your Match list. Strangely, many applicants don’t even consider this important issue when making decisions about their next three to five years. Also, many residencies support physician wellness programs and night coverage. Especially in the setting of severe burnout among doctors, your happiness should be a primary factor in your career choices. If you’re not sure, consider your shrinking telomeres.
Recently I’ve heard from a few fortunate Insider medical school applicant clients who were not only accepted to several medical schools, but also were offered scholarship money to attend. They’ve asked me this: Is there a way to leverage the money I’ve been granted at one medical school to get funding at another?
Well, it’s worth a try.
As long as you’re diplomatic, contacting other medical schools, advising them of your scholarship, and requesting a match might help, although I’d suggest having low expectations. Still, if done politely, it cannot hurt.
In a different vein, a sometimes-successful technique I’ve encountered is to use the scholarship award as a means of obtaining an interview or trying to get off the wait list at another school. Send a note to your wait listed schools to let them know of your promised funds. After all, if you’re competitive enough to earn a scholarship at one place, you should be competitive enough to be accepted at another.
Many congratulations are due to those residency applicants who had a successful Match. I would really appreciate hearing from this year’s clients regarding their Matches.
On a related note, unfortunately, as of July 1, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) will allow first-year residents to work 24+ hours without a break. I’ll come out as saying that I think this is a very poor idea.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
