OVERVIEW
Matching into Emergency Medicine can be difficult given that there are far more applicants than residency positions available. In recent years, nearly 10% of allopathic medical students have failed to match. These numbers are worse for osteopathic and international medical graduates. To maximize the chances of a successful match, it's important that you have the "right strategy" in place.
Although the optimal strategy will differ from one applicant to another, there is much that you can learn from the experiences of those who have successfully matched. In this episode, join Dr. Samir Desai as he interviews Dr. Brian Fromm, an emergency medicine resident at Thomas Jefferson University about his experiences as an emergency medicine residency applicant.
SYNOPSIS
Introduction [0:11] -
[0:45] Review of recent NRMP Match Data in Emergency Medicine.
[3:44] Brian discusses his introduction to Emergency Medicine, and how he decided it was the right specialty for him. He talks about shadowing in the EM department as a second-year medical student, and the impression it made on him.
[9:40] Brian discusses how his medical school did not have an emergency medicine residency program, and how that makes it difficult in terms of getting a Standardized Letter of Evaluation. He discusses how he overcame this challenge.
[11:45] Brian discusses how many away rotations he did, and how hard it was to schedule these rotations. And what he would have done differently if he were doing it all over again.
[14:30] Brian provides tips on how to excel during these away rotations. How you're being judged, and the stress associated with it. He talks about social interactions with residents. How the EM mindset is different than the other rotations you've done - how so much of this is about ruling out "badness." Be aware of the 2 AM test in EM.
[18:40] Brian talks about feedback during EM rotations.
[20:27] Brian discusses his concerns about matching, and how he felt he was an "average" applicant. Talks about how he applied to West Coast but didn't get any interest, and why. Eventually, he reached his goal of securing 12 interviews. He had heard chances of
[23:27] Brian talks about the stress associated with waiting for interview invitations, and he became proactive through networking to increase the number of interviews he received.
[26:53] Brian discusses pre-interview social events
[0:00]