By Marie Haaland
Staff writer
All across the country on Friday, March 18, medical students, including the second class of Hofstra’s Northwell School of Medicine, received their match letters that told them where they will be fulfilling their residencies, the next step in the journey to becoming a physician.
Last year, 100 percent of the inaugural class of the School of Medicine – formally known as Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine – matched with a residency; this year’s graduating class accomplished the same feat.
As letters were opened, there was dancing, tears, shouting and lots of hugging.
“We actually always think of this day as more exciting than graduation, because it’s such a life-changing moment. It’s the culmination of all your hard work, wrapped into an envelope,” Adrienne M. Stoller, communications manager for the School of Medicine, said.
The 57 students went through an extensive process leading up to Match Day. Rob Squiers, a 45-year-old who decided to change his career and pursue medicine, explained his experience with the process.
“You apply to all these different places and you get invites for interviews, and then you get on waitlists and then you get off of waitlists, but if you don’t respond fast enough then you don’t get the interview or maybe you do,” he said.
Students applied for a residency in the fall and have been going through the interview process since.
When the process is complete, students are contractually obligated to fulfill their residency with the institution that they are matched with. Through this residency, students will have hands-on training in preparation for becoming independent physicians.
This year’s class, in particular, is diverse both in who they are and in what they’re doing next. “We have people going into anesthesiology, child neurology, dermatology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, neurology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, pediatrics, plastic surgery, psychiatry, radiology, general surgery and urology. We have people going to 15 different states for their residencies,” Lawrence G. Smith, founding dean of the School of Medicine, said.
Students also had the option of doing a couples match, where they and their partner would be placed at the same location. Four Hofstra medical student couples matched, and nationally those in couples matches did better than in single matches.
“I think doctors are basically healers and helpers. And when they see the predicament someone in a couples match is in, they go out of their way to help them, because they know this is a really difficult thing to find a place for two people, especially in different fields and different paths,” Smith said.
This year’s Match Day was the largest ever with 42,370 applicants and 30,750 available residency spots.
More students are expected to participate in the process next year, which the faculty finds very exciting.
“One of our founding principles is that we really want to develop students to go into the disciplines that they’re most suited for and that they’ll do the best work in, for patients and communities,” David L. Battinelli, dean for medical education at the School of Medicine, said.
“We joke about it, we say we’re not into brainwashing, in terms of the pedagogies, so it would really not be consistent for us to then say we have to only produce X kind of doctor or another kind of doctor,” Battinelli said. “So really, it’s a lot of free choice and I think that’s reflected in the diversity of the places; and the students are outstanding, so they matched in terrific places.”
This year, students matched with many different institutions including New York University School of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Yale New Haven Hospital.
Squiers will be going to Reading Hospital in Reading, Pennsylvania, for a four year OB/GYN residency. “The first year is intern year. It’s heavily focused on labor and delivery, but you’re also doing other subspecialties, as well as other specialties. You actually do a month of ICU, as that’s very important as a part of OB/GYN curriculum,” he said. “And you do internal medicine as well because a lot of OB/GYNs, when they practice, become sort of the PCP (primary care provider) for a lot of women. They tend to see their OB/GYN once a year, but they don’t see anybody else, so you’ve got to know some of that internal medicine, so you can be a really effective OB/GYN.”
“It’s exciting for all of us,” Stoller said, “Everyone’s very emotional. We see these students start from the very beginning and get to this point. We really wish them the best, and a lot of them are going into really interesting specialties.”
