Match Day Relief and Grief

On 12 pm March 1st, I matched to my top residency choice in Toronto’s Family Medicine! It was gratifying to be recognized by the program for all the hard work I’ve put in these past few years. I believe it was a culmination of research, community outreach work, and clinical excellence, which helped distinguish my application. It’s humbling to be accepted into a class of hardworking and compassionate future residents. The best part of all this is that many of my good medical school friends are also in my cohort! It’ll be exciting to embark on the next phase of this journey with familiar and friendly faces. I promised to serve my patients with integrity and dedication. I hope to fulfill that promise over the years to come.

Reaching out to current residents, my understanding is that a subsequent internal match will occur over the next few months to determine where my training site will be. I’ve heard positive things about all sites but NYGH has a special place in my heart. It’s where I did many of my rotations in medical school and where I’ve come to familiarize myself with many of the staff in the Family Medicine Teaching Unit. Keeping in mind it’s a very competitive site, I hope to train there during the next 2 years. I’ve also been encouraged by others to apply for my CPSO postgraduate training license and CMPA coverage early on. Many residents have warned me about the mountain of paperwork that is headed my way. Having just endured an arduous match process, I feel the administrative work will be a cakewalk. I feel relief at the prospect of being able to complete it!

On the other hand, I know Match Day is a time filled with grief for those students who went unmatched. Some of those unfortunate few are classmates and friends who I know very well. I’m aware of how hard they worked and recognize that today marks a time when the field they are so keen to join has not validated their efforts. For these students, it must be heartbreaking to hear such news. Even more disturbing is the news that 26 students in my class and 222 students failed to match on a national level. This is an unprecedented number and highlights intrinsic failure in the medical training system to support students in their dreams of becoming practicing physicians. It’s unfathomable that years of hard work to enter and graduate from medical school in addition to thousands of dollars of subsidies from public taxpayers will hang in the balance. As a specialty, we must ensure all Canadian medical grads have an option to continue their education so that our system continues to nurture the growth of caring and compassionate physicians.
- AX