Dirty Little Secret / Residency Match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCFIM1jnLxg

Assuming that over the last 5 years alone over 50,000 doctors have not matched into a residency, why are we not hearing more about the Residency Shortage?  Why are we not outraged?  Surely, the 50,000 unmatched doctors should be incredulous about their futures, despondent, mortified, frustrated, and ultimately furious with a system which has betrayed them! Why are we not hearing from them or about them?  My answers include:  the unmatched doctor is embarrassed by “their own” failure to match- a “dirty little secret”, the lack of a support group or committee to join, the isolation each unmatched doctor experiences while their peers are rejoicing in a “match”, and the other unmatched doctors are “scattered” across the US. There is a sense of futility unmatched doctors have when they try to figure out a plan, a solution, or “someone” to contact to correct this injustice.  Think about it.  Who would you contact under the circumstances:  your legislator, your dean, the Federal Government?  There is no “one person” who can right this wrong.

Recently, my son met a new doctor graduate at a happy hour he was hosting in his Chicago condo.  The doctor had failed to match into a residency this past March and was very sad and reluctant to discuss it.  My son told her about my blog and website, and encouraged her to look at them.  The topic was so painful that she just wanted to drop the subject.  My heart cringed ONCE AGAIN when I heard this sad story.  My first thought was, if only she would listen to my blogs she would realize the fault for not matching was not hers, but a system which had failed her.  That also, the sheer numbers of applicants and the use of computerized screening had probably eliminated her application from consideration, that any redeeming parts of her application had probably gone UN-READ, and that unfortunately that scenario was bound to repeat itself in subsequent match attempts.  I hoped that with this knowledge her sadness and embarrassment would change to one of anger and determination to let her voice be heard on this travesty.

Leading up to the next residency Match Day 2018 I am going to be focusing on getting those 50,000 unmatched doctors to unify and speak out.  No one will care about the solution to the Residency Shortage as much or as fervently as those affected by it.  Ironically, in the next decade we will all be affected by it to some degree with the impending doctor shortage.  Yet, until the unsuspecting public is directly impacted by this shortage, there will be little public outcry.  That is why the unmatched doctors, their friends, family and colleagues need to get over their “uncomfortable” dirty little secrets, and convert their embarrassment to action!  Let’s get the word out there regarding the residency shortage and our Nation’s failure to uphold its side of our “Social Contract

www.NoMatchMDs.blogspot.com