Winding his way through the maze of close-knit chairs and round tables covered with half-empty plates, wine glasses and silver flatware, Ben Sessions kept his head down until he reached the stage in front of him.
Sessions picked up an envelope with his name inscribed on it. Without glancing at it, he made his way back to his table, where he tucked the envelope, unopened, inside a folded program booklet. Raising his elbows to the table, he cradled his forehead between clasped hands, massaged his temples with his forefingers, then turned a grim face to his fiancee, Devin Longacre, seated beside him.
Longacre rubbed Sessions’ back, smiled and motioned toward the envelope. Sessions shook his head with a quick “no.”
Sessions was one of 162 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences seniors who gathered at the Embassy Suites ballroom Friday to receive an envelope with their fates sealed inside.
“Match Day” is a national event, typically held on the third Friday in March, where medical-school seniors find out where they will complete their postgraduate residency training.
The highly competitive process begins with students and hospitals both creating prioritized lists of their desired programs and specialties. The profiles are then fed into a computer system that matches the residency candidates with medical facilities across the nation. What follows are months of grueling interviews and endless waiting that culminates in a sealed envelope on Match Day.
“It was absolutely wonderful today,” said Dr. Richard Wheeler, executive associate dean for academic affairs at UAMS. “Today’s celebration was a culmination of these kids’ efforts over the years. It was exciting to see the families and people jumping up and down.”
Indeed, the room was filled with flower bouquets being passed from parents to students, raucous cheers and cowbells ringing out as students screamed their residencies from the stage — Drexel University in Philadelphia, Harvard, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Stoneybrook Teaching Hospital in New York and dozens of other facilities from around the nation.
Riley Lipschitz learned that she had earned one of only four spots available in the coveted Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia primary-medicine residency program.
“This is blowing my mind. I am so overwhelmed right now,” Lipschitz said before motioning to Gre’ Juana Dennis, her partner of 12 years. “Her life has been hijacked by this, too. It has been nine months in the making.”
For Jermey Jones, Friday came after spending eight years on a Batesville factory line and three years in the Army before deciding to go to medical school. The 37-year-old Batesville native — who will spend his family-medicine residence in Pine Bluff as part of UAMS Regional Programs — was the first college graduate in his family.
“Rural family practice was where I always wanted to be. I know there is a big need in the state, and I want to be part of the solution,” Jones said.
Sessions and Longacre met during their second year of medical school at UAMS and quickly became inseparable. Both had applied to residencies in the same areas. But chances were high that if the contents of their sealed envelopes didn’t match, they could be separated during their residency years.
Longacre’s name had not been called to go to the stage when she leaned in and whispered in Sessions’ ear. Handin-hand, the couple made their way to the foyer where Sessions paced. He glanced alternately from the carpeted floor to the papered walls before finally meeting his fiancee’s pleading gaze.
Huddled in a corner, Sessions and Longacre clasped hands, turned their backs to the room and together opened the envelope in Sessions’ hand. A smile spread across Longacre’s face as she silently pumped a fist in the air, grabbed Sessions around the neck and kissed him.
Without saying a word, the couple rejoined their families in the ballroom at their tables. And waited.
Friday’s apprehension and excitement for the thousands of medical students around the nation were heightened by the fact that the number of applicants far outnumber residencies. This year, there were 34,270 active applicants and only 26,678 residencies available.
Funded at the federal level through Medicare, hospitals are reimbursed for the residents’ salaries — which are typically $35,000 each for the first year.
On Monday, 18 UAMS students were told they did not receive a match.
Those students were then thrown into what Wheeler called the “mad scramble.” The Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program allows students to basically begin the application process over again, competing for the remaining open residency slots that failed to receive a matched student.
As of Friday afternoon, seven of the 18 were still without matches.
“It’s devastating. They cannot do a residency. If they can’t do a residency, they can’t get a license. They’re just stuck,” Wheeler said.
There were seven UAMS graduates from last year who were never matched with a residency, Wheeler said. Such students, he added, have to seek alternatives such as research positions or wait until the next year to try again for a residency spot.
Outside the hotel Friday, third-year UAMS Medical Center student Michael Belt held up a camera and motioned for Ben Stevens to angle his match letter out of the sun’s glare. Stevens learned earlier that he had been placed with his top pick — a family-medicine residency at University Hospital in Columbia, Mo.
Stevens pulled out a list of the 2014 UAMS graduates matched with their residencies. Ticking through the list with Belt, he took in a sharp breath and grimaced.
“I don’t even want to talk about the ones that didn’t get a match,” Stevens said before extolling the virtues of remaining humble during the residency years.
Inside, Longacre’s name was called among the eight remaining graduates. The couple clasped hands and wound their way to the side of the stage where they turned their backs to the crowd, and Longacre opened the envelope.
Their families watched the couple anxiously from their seats for any indication as to the contents of the two envelopes. Longacre and Session remained stoic, taking the steps hand-in-hand to the microphone.
Once they reach the microphone, Sessions released a pent-up breath and Longacre grinned as the couple threw their clasped hands in the air and let out a loud cheer.
Longacre will practice family medicine at Methodist Health System, and Sessions will study anesthesiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School — both in Dallas.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/22/2014