Fourth year medical students from all around the globe experienced Match Day madness this year on March 17, 2023, the moment they found out where they will go for the residency training part of their education.
The 72 students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) were in the mix and 100% of them matched into residency programs.
Residency is the phase of a student physician’s training, where doctors spend three to seven years learning to become specialists in their chosen fields. Thirty-one percent of the class of 2023 will remain in Hawaiʻi for their residency and 39% of the class will go into primary care.
Aly Baniqued, a fourth-year JABSOM student, has waited more than a decade for Match Day.
“Becoming a physician has literally been over 12 years in the making,” said Baniqued. “From undergrad to taking my gap years and eventually getting into medical school, knowing there would be this light at the end of the tunnel kept me going.”
Baniqued matched with her first choice—UH.
“It’s critical to get into the residency of your choice. There are a ton of great programs, and ultimately, it comes down to fit, being able to see yourself working with the residents while also looking at the community in which you’re serving,” Baniqued added. “There’s something to be said about learning in the place you’re about to serve. Hawaiʻi’s culture is so rich and different from anywhere else in the world, and I’m just so lucky to get to serve my community through my training and ultimately in practice in the future.”
Competition in residency
According to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), 42,952 applicants vied for 40,375 spots this year, marking the largest match in NRMP’s 70-year history.
Fourth-year JABSOM student Clark Caballero found the journey to residency is just as hard, and in some ways, even more complicated, than applying for medical school or other jobs.
“I applied to about 45 programs, which is quite a bit, but not as much as all the nationwide programs for psychiatry,” he said. “I started looking at programs when I first started fourth-year around July. I was looking for specific things, like places that focused on culture, diversity and geriatric care.”
Students go on interviews, and, once complete, students and hospitals rank their top choices. A computer algorithm does the “matching.” Caballero learned he also matched his first choice, UH.
“I’m staying here because I want to give back to the community and take care of our older population, our kūpuna,” Caballero said.
Read more at the JABSOM website.
