Med Students Meet Their Match | Corwell Health

It was only 11:30 on a Friday morning, but the bar at the Watermark Country Club was open for business and a short line of 20 men and women chatted anxiously as they waited their turn. This day has been years and years in the making.

Exactly at noon on the third Friday in March, fourth-year medical school students join others across the country in a highly charged tradition called Match Day.

Hearts beating, they each take a deep breath and open a sealed envelope with their name on it. Inside, they would find a simple white paper telling them where they would spend the next three to seven years as a resident.

envelope please

At Watermark, just minutes before noon, Michigan State University College of Medicine students Felicia Bozeman, Salim Alama and Darren Patmon are among those handed a bright green envelope revealing their future.

The three of them hoped against hope that the words “Corewell Health” would be waiting for them inside.

Bozeman repeatedly turned the envelope into her own hands and looked to her loved ones for support. Slim bounced up and down in anticipation. Patmon hands the envelope to his wife. Moments later, the three of them were celebrating.

The trio were among 69 students from the MSU Grand Rapids campus who gathered for the Match Day tradition.

“I don’t think I can find the words,” said Alama, who specializes in internal medicine. “I had great mentors. It will be exciting to use all these years of training and continue to grow my knowledge.”

Elsewhere, students from medical schools across the country have gotten their assignments, too. Corewell Health will welcome about 375 first-year residents, also known as interns, to its hospitals in July, shortly after they graduate from medical school.

“This is probably the biggest moment in any medical professional’s career,” said TaLawnda Bragg, MD, a hospital physician at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids and program director for 44 internal medicine residents.

It has been successful in its drive to attract 15 new residents this year. The labor-intensive research began last year with 2,800 applications, each 45-50 pages long. From there, her team selected 180 applicants for interviews. Eight a day, about 20 minutes each with three or four faculty doctors.

The entire process is guided by the National Resident Matching Program and matches are legally binding.

Better care with residents

“There is an algorithm where we hope the student gets their first choice, but if the program doesn’t select them, it then moves on to their second choice. The idea is that there is a perfect fit that meets the needs of the student as well as the needs of the program,” said Dr. Bragg.

“It’s a lot like dating,” she said. “And we date a lot of people.”

The population is an integral part of the healthcare delivery system.

In addition to shadowing physicians, they assist with admissions, release, documentation, education of medical school students, and other tasks, all under the direction of the attending physician.

“We are honing their skills. Having that direct guidance is really important. And the patient is getting a lot of attention. Patients are getting better care because there are so many eyes on them,” said Dr. Bragg.

In addition, residents keep doctors alert.

“Residents keep us informed, excited and engaged,” she said. “It’s impossible to get stagnant when you have residents on your team.”

Many residency programs, including internal medicine, last for three years. Some last up to seven.

Patmon’s residency in plastic surgery, a highly competitive field, is for six years.

He took a year off from medical school to complete and present plastic surgery research at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. He hoped that the research work would support his request.

Pay this bet on the day of the match.

Patmon said he fell in love with plastic surgery after caring for a child who suffered severe facial fractures and other injuries in a car accident. This is where he saw the breadth and depth of what he could achieve in the field.

“I’m so excited because I’m already getting paid and I haven’t taken any more loans,” he joked.

Game day added importance to Erica Burkett, a student at the William Beaumont School of Medicine at Oakland University, and Nathaniel Bartozyk, who teaches at Central Michigan University School of Medicine.

The two are engaged and successfully matched as a married couple at Corewell Health in Southeast Michigan. CMU even sent Bartosek’s information to the OU so the pair could open their envelopes together.

Burkett joins the obstetrics and gynecology program while her fiancé is an internal medicine collaborator.

“Matching up pairs is much more difficult than matching up as one because programs have to have both majors. It’s very annoying not knowing what change there will be when you open your envelope on match day,” said Burkett, adding that she “kept it together” until moments before opening theirs. This is when wailing ensued.

“It just shows you how much stress and anxiety you have accumulated,” she said.

More than 1,000 residents work with many of Corewell Health’s 11,500 physicians and advanced practice providers. Among them is Dima Fawaz, MD. She has spent the past three years as an emergency medicine resident at Corewell Health in Royal Oak, which was her top choice.

She will remain with the hospital system after her residency ends this summer and become a practicing physician, subject to board certification. Corewell Health has hired her as a full-time emergency medicine physician in Troy.

Craig Matisoff, MD, who completed his residency in family medicine, will also be residing. He has accepted a hybrid role that will allow him to practice as a primary care physician and hospital physician at Corewell Health in Greenville.

“The hardest part of finishing a residency is leaving your patients,” he said. “But fortunately, I won’t have to because I’m going to continue working here in primary care.”