Finding the perfect Match; USF Health senior medical students are residency-bound

Click here for Match Day 2022 results.

Across the country, senior medical students learned where they will spend their residencies during Match Day 2022, including those from USF Health. Photo courtesy of Ben Eytalis.

It was a day of excitement, disbelief, and tears of happiness as, one by one, senior medical students from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine opened envelopes during Match Day 2022 to reveal where they will spend their residency years.

Match Day is held simultaneously at all medical schools across the country to reveal where senior medical students will spend their residencies, the next step in their medical education – which can last from three to seven years depending on the specialty.

No medical school in the country celebrates Match Day like MCOM. Friends, families, and even a few pets gathered at Ulele, a downtown Tampa restaurant on the Hillsborough River. This year’s theme took on a science fiction twist “To Residency and Beyond.” The event was live-streamed for those who wanted to celebrate the momentous occasion with the class of 2022.

Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM, USF Health senior vice president and Morsani College of Medicine dean, is in the spirit of this year’s Match Day Theme “To Residency and Beyond.”

Kicking off the program was Charles Lockwood, MD, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

“Match is one of my favorite events all year because each of you get to see, firsthand, the reward of your hard work over the past four years,” Dr. Lockwood said. “Wherever residency takes you, please know that you will always have a home with us at MCOM. The same qualities that allowed you to succeed here will carry you through in your career. I could not be more excited for you as you take this pivotal next step in your career.”

The national match process is handled through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP). In the months leading up to Match Day, students apply and interview for residency slots with institutions across the country, and then rank their preferences. Match Day, which begins at noon (ET), is when students learn which residency programs chose them and where they will train for the next three to seven years.

Rachel Patten’s reaction when she learned that she will spend her residency years in Denver.

For this year’s Match Day, the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2022 includes 163 senior students, of which 52 are in the SELECT MD program, who have spent the past two years in clinical rotations in Allentown, PA. Many of the medical students in the SELECT program celebrated in Allentown.

Match Day Stats: From the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Class of 2022: 163 students matched; 35 are staying at USF; 74 are staying in Florida; and 64 students chose primary care as their specialty (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics). Five students move on to care for the country’s service members as military doctors.

Frank Lee learned he got his first choice of matches and he is headed to Rochester, Minn. for his residency years.

This year’s National Residency Matching Program included 47,675 applicants competing for 39,205 positions available. Click here for more details about the nationwide Match from the NRMP. http://www.nrmp.org/

Additional Photos:

Jhulianna Vivar was the last to receive her letter. In the tradition of MCOM Match Day, she receives a money jar in which everyone who received their letters before her donated.