Medical school affiliates across state have also filled residency positions

Most students couldn’t fathom the thought of eight years of college without a specialization or specific area of interest, but for SIU medical students this is an everyday reality until residency.

Seniors in the SIU School of Medicine were matched for residency through the National Resident Matching Program.

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According to a news release from the school, students matched in a broad range of areas from internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology to dermatology and orthopedic surgery.

The NRMP is a national program sponsored by five organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, in which senior medical students can choose to participate in to help find residency programs.

Of the 71 senior medical students, 68 were matched through the program.

Dr. Kevin Dorsey, dean and provost of the School of Medicine, said of the 72 students accepted to the school each year, on average 95 percent of those students are matched for residency though the NRMP.

Dorsey said when ranking applicants, programs look for a variety of things, depending on what type of program it is.

“If you ran a residency program, you’d be looking for someone who is smart – who is good with patients,” he said. “If you were running a surgery program, you would want to be told that the student was skilled – was good with their hands.

“It depends. Just like if you ran a university, you’d want bright people who got along well and contributed to society.”

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Although medical students graduate with an actual M.D., they are required to complete a minimum of three years of residency before they are qualified to independently practice medicine. While the average length of residency is three years, it may vary depending on specialty.

According to Nancy Zimmers, director of public affairs, students begin the matching process by first interviewing with medical institutions that offer residency programs for their particular specialty. Both the students and institutions then rank each other from highest to lowest before a computer generates matches based on those rankings.

Students who either choose not to participate in the match or are not placed through the match have the option of independently finding a residency program that fits their interest, or “scrambling,” which means they look for positions that were not filled in the match.

Of the 68 students who matched, 49 of them will complete programs in the Midwest.

SIU’s two affiliate hospitals in Springfield also filled 55 starting residency positions through the match, with SIU medical students filling 12 of those positions. Affiliate programs in Decatur, Quincy and Carbondale also filled residency positions through the match. Medical students graduate May 22. Residency begins in June.