{"id":2636,"date":"2019-03-14T13:06:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T17:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/?p=2636"},"modified":"2019-03-14T13:06:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T17:06:09","slug":"musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ellen<\/a>

Ellen Poulose Redger, MD, is a Chief Resident at Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, NY<\/p><\/div>\n

Match Day.\u00a0The one day\u00a0that medical students across the United States all simultaneously look forward to and also fear.\u00a0It\u2019s really a whole week of\u00a0roller-coaster emotions: on Monday we find out if<\/em> we matched somewhere, and on Friday we find out where<\/em>.\u00a0(And, in between, if we unfortunately didn\u2019t match, we scramble to find a position that is hopefully what we wanted to do but that at least gives us a job for the next 1-7 years.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been through several Match Days for residency now, one as a spouse of a MS4 and one as an MS4 myself.\u00a0(And, I guess, two others as the child of MS4s, but I didn\u2019t know enough then to have any idea what was going on.)\u00a0These days (weeks) are stressful and exciting at the same time.\u00a0 Stressful waiting \u2014 to find out where we are going, what the algorithm determined is the best fit for us based on our preferences and the preferences of the programs at which we\u00a0interviewed.\u00a0Stressful wondering \u2014 to find out if we\u2019re going to have to move somewhere new or if we\u2019re going to know anyone else who\u2019s going there, or if we\u2019re going to find new friends at a new place.\u00a0Stressful excitement \u2014\u00a0to think of a fresh start and another step in our training in medicine.\u00a0Scary to contemplate it all.\u00a0And very confusing to explain the process to anyone who isn\u2019t in medicine.\u00a0Yes, a computer algorithm analyzes preference lists from applicants and programs and then figures out a very important piece of our careers and commits us to a training program.<\/p>\n

My Match Day as a student was a complete collection of all emotions.\u00a0I was excited to see where I was going to train for the next 3\"\"<\/a> years, really hoping it would be at the same place my husband was going, and scared to find out.\u00a0Scared because, if we didn\u2019t end up at the same place, the 1 year of training in separate cities that we\u2019d already done could end up being 3 or 4 years of living apart. And very nervous that, if all went well, we\u2019d be moving halfway across the country to city where we didn\u2019t know anyone.\u00a0 I remember very nervously walking up to the stage with my husband to get my envelope, opening it with him, and then turning to the microphone to announce where I [we] was going. (My husband, clearly, was very excited that we were going to the same place for the following 4 years.) I remember cheering on my classmates and friends as they found out where they were headed to for the next stage of their training.\u00a0Some were ecstatic with their matches, and a few were mildly disappointed, but everyone was proud that they had made it to the next step.<\/p>\n

As a resident, I also look forward to Match Day. It\u2019s exciting to find out who is coming to join our program, because\u00a0those matches are a\u00a0reflection on our program and its current residents, faculty, and leadership.\u00a0It\u2019s also a reminder that I’m almost done with another year of training and am that much closer to a fellowship or a job.\u00a0There\u2019s a palpable energy in our program during Match Week as we wait to find out if we filled all of our positions (phew) and then anticipate who will be joining us, and then finally find out who they are.\u00a0A perk of being a future Chief Resident last year was that Match Day was also the day we found out who the social butterflies of the incoming class would be, as the social media friend\/follow requests came flying in.<\/p>\n

Match Week marks the beginning of the end of medical school and the start of residency.\u00a0It\u2019s the time when the promise of graduation becomes very real (which is awesome), and the idea of having a job shortly becomes more concrete.\u00a0It\u2019s when we start getting paperwork to fill out for hospital privileges and licenses and NPI numbers.\u00a0It\u2019s when we realize that the last few months of freedom until we retire are coming up and when we look for cheap flights to somewhere to celebrate our accomplishments. And it\u2019s the start of new Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups so that\u00a0we can stay connected to our medical school friends and make new residency friends.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a temptation to speed up the time between finding out where we are going for residency and actually starting residency.\u00a0A thought of getting ahead by reading something or learning something or practicing something to help us hit the ground running as interns.\u00a0Don\u2019t do it.\u00a0Relax and breathe in those last few weeks of freedom before residency starts.\u00a0Take the 3 months between Match Week and Intern Orientation to learn more about yourself and take care of yourself and your loved ones.\u00a0Deepen the friendships you have with your medical school classmates, and be open to new friendships with residency colleagues.\u00a0After all, once the algorithm has decided where we are going, it\u2019s up to us to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

\"NEJM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Match Day.\u00a0The one day\u00a0that medical students across the United States all simultaneously look forward to and also fear.\u00a0It\u2019s really a whole week of\u00a0roller-coaster emotions: on Monday we find out if we matched somewhere, and on Friday we find out where.\u00a0(And, in between, if we unfortunately didn\u2019t match, we scramble to find a position that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,29,72,37,40],"class_list":["post-2636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-residency","tag-chief-resident","tag-internal-medicine","tag-medical-education","tag-resident-experience","tag-student-experience"],"yoast_head":"\nMusings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies - Insights on Residency Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Insights on Residency Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/07\/AU000_epouloseredger-125x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/\",\"name\":\"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies - Insights on Residency Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/\",\"name\":\"Insights on Residency Training\",\"description\":\"Observation of residents across diverse medical specialties\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855\",\"name\":\"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD\",\"description\":\"Ellen was born just outside Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of her father\u2019s second year of medical school. She moved to Kansas City as a 2-year-old with a cute southern drawl, which has now faded into a Midwestern non-accent and intermittent use of \u201cy\u2019all.\u201d After watching her mother go to medical school when she was a child, Ellen chose to go to the University of Kansas to pursue her own medical degree. There, she met her stellar husband, and the pair have since moved to Stony Brook, New York, to pursue residency training: Urology for him, and internal medicine for her. Ellen was thrilled to be asked to stay on as a Chief Resident after graduation while her husband finishes his residency. She enjoys cooking for others, periodically going to the gym, and watching the occasional primetime comedy TV show. While on Long Island, she sometimes goes to the beach, too, where she has been known to accidentally apply insufficient sunscreen. She plans to integrate palliative care into her career after this last year of soaking up knowledge from her wonderful colleagues and program directors at Stony Brook.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/author\/epouloseredger\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies - Insights on Residency Training","description":"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies","og_description":"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/","og_site_name":"Insights on Residency Training","article_published_time":"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/07\/AU000_epouloseredger-125x150.jpg"}],"author":"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/","name":"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies - Insights on Residency Training","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-14T17:06:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855"},"description":"Dr. Poulose-Redger is excited about Match Day! Best wishes to all who are participating!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/2019\/03\/musings-on-match-day-the-conception-day-of-our-residencies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/","name":"Insights on Residency Training","description":"Observation of residents across diverse medical specialties","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/#\/schema\/person\/9582a49f225d70a7043e5aad25bfd855","name":"Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD","description":"Ellen was born just outside Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of her father\u2019s second year of medical school. She moved to Kansas City as a 2-year-old with a cute southern drawl, which has now faded into a Midwestern non-accent and intermittent use of \u201cy\u2019all.\u201d After watching her mother go to medical school when she was a child, Ellen chose to go to the University of Kansas to pursue her own medical degree. There, she met her stellar husband, and the pair have since moved to Stony Brook, New York, to pursue residency training: Urology for him, and internal medicine for her. Ellen was thrilled to be asked to stay on as a Chief Resident after graduation while her husband finishes his residency. She enjoys cooking for others, periodically going to the gym, and watching the occasional primetime comedy TV show. While on Long Island, she sometimes goes to the beach, too, where she has been known to accidentally apply insufficient sunscreen. She plans to integrate palliative care into her career after this last year of soaking up knowledge from her wonderful colleagues and program directors at Stony Brook.","url":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/author\/epouloseredger\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/general-medicine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}