Each year on the third Friday of March, there is an excitement that fills the air throughout the department. Faculty and residents buzz while gathering around TVs and in conference rooms, logging in to watch UAB’s live feed of Match Day. This celebration is the culmination of months of work, countless hours of interviews, and a team that is devoted to recruiting the best of the best each year.
Our department receives more than 1,000 applications from candidates across the country looking to join our residency program. From those applications, approximately 200 candidates complete the interview process. Of the 200 interviews conducted virtually, 21 candidates join our four-year residency program.
“Each new interview season brings unique challenges and opportunities for improvement,” says Residency Program Administrator Celia Schardon Keenan. “With careful planning and support from a broad range of department members, we all experience the joy and exhilaration of Match Day, when we can proudly announce our new class of physicians and welcome them into our anesthesiology family.” So, what does the road to Match Day look like? Let’s take a brief walk through this annual journey.
The Review
The extensive process to make the Match Day magic happen is a continuous cycle. Our department’s education division is comprised of more than 10 full-time faculty and staff who directly support the residency program, in addition to the dozens of attendings that our residents learn from and work with daily.
It all begins in April. We review feedback from the previous match cycle, asking questions such as: Do we provide excellent clinical and research opportunities and offer innovative curriculum and unique learning tracks? Do UAB and visiting medical students enjoy and value their elective rotation experience? Previous candidate surveys help us better understand our strengths and opportunities for improvement so that we can continue to develop our program and offer candidates the best interview experience. We take the feedback and start envisioning details for the next match cycle.
Summer Transition
During June and July, our department hosts several transition meetings with newly appointed chief residents and resident recruitment directors. These leaders play an integral role in advocating for current residents and improving the interview experience. We want candidates to enjoy the entire interview process and have access to the most useful resource materials.
In preparation, the residency recruitment and communications teams work together to update and produce new materials for upcoming candidates—our residency brochure, departmental website and videos, as well as branded items and fact sheets. These are used throughout recruitment to showcase our educational opportunities, current residents, nationally ranked hospital, and beautiful city of Birmingham. Then it’s all hands on deck to distribute the new materials in many venues, including national society conferences, social media platforms, and local and national residency recruitment events.
Open Houses & Interviews
Anesthesiology leadership and residents host virtual open houses in August and September for residency candidates to learn more about our anesthesiology community. Each session provides general information about our program and has an interactive Q&A session. Open houses also share content tailored to specific topics such as women in anesthesia, diversity and inclusion, research, and leadership. In January of 2023, we also launched optional “second look events” for candidates who had never visited Birmingham. These two-day in-person sessions provide candidates and their guests an opportunity to visit Birmingham to get to know more about our community in and out of the hospital. They meet with current residents and faculty, tour the hospital, do a bit of sightseeing, and dine at some of the local hot spots.
Behind-the-scenes preparation is crucial to recruitment success. To best serve the applicants, our staff attend webinars and mock Zoom sessions. Our dedicated residency staff team finalizes candidate itineraries and divides tasks to allow the interview season to run smoothly. Finally, candidate applications are released to programs at the end of September, and interview invitations are distributed.
October, November, and December are our busiest months. A series of 20 days of virtual interviews provide our faculty, residents, and staff the opportunity to interact with approximately 200 residency candidates. In early January, our faculty and residents hold meetings to discuss and finalize our rank lists. We submit our lists to the National Resident Matching Program and eagerly await Match Day!
Then, it’s time. The third Friday of March rolls around, and the department buzzes with excitement. Our matches are announced, and we celebrate and prepare for their arrival. Each new class of physicians joins our program with the shared goal of becoming leaders in the medical community and anesthesia profession—representing UAB and anesthesiology to the fullest.
PICTURED: From celebrations to scrubs caps, Zasmine Hymes-Green, M.D., matched with UAB in 2021 and is now practicing as a CA2 within the department.