A Nine Year Journey to the Match
- US IMG
- Step 1 : 212
- Step 2CK : 216
- Step 2 CS : Pass
- YOG: 2004
- Four unsuccessful attempts at Matching
Here’s the amazing story of an IMG with low scores, year of graduation in 2004, and four unsuccessful matching attempts who went on a 9-year journey and found a residency virtually in her own backyard!
Dr. Barone!
I Matched!! I am an IMG. Graduated in 2004 and practiced in my country till 2009 when I Immigrated to the US. Became ECFMG certified in 2011.
Applied for residency 4 consecutive times(2012 - 2016) with no success! Became ill with life threatening complications including bilateral massive pulmonary embolism, Acute Liver Failure etc. Lost hope and stopped applying. Pursued and completed a Masters degree in Population Health from Jefferson in 2020. Decided to give it one more try....... And I Matched!!! I matched into Internal Medicine.
I am a living miracle as far as I am concerned. Life lessons... everything is designed for a season. A river cuts a rock not because of its power, but because of its consistency!! My journey pursuing residency started in 2012......It materialized 9 years Later!! It can only be God!!!! I can give you more details of all I went through! Phew!!!!! I have cried all week in just sheer Awe!! It came to pass!!
Dr. Barone: “Congratulations! You are amazing!!! What do you think made the difference this year to get you matched after so many attempts? Do you think the Masters help you match?”
1) I did a lot of outpatient rotations in my local town in Delaware (Internal medicine, Family medicine, OB/GYN)
2) I continued with inpatient rotations (In two different hospitals , one hospital that had a residency program and one just a general hospital)
3) I paid $$$$ and did an official “Physician Refresher/ Re-entry course” at Drexel College of Medicine. This afforded me an almost 2 months Externship at the now Defunct Hahnemann hospital in their Internal Medicine Residency Program. I worked along side residents for 2 months following their schedules. I volunteered for weekend calls and overnight floats even if it was not warranted. I interviewed with them that year in 2016 but did not get in even with all the great letters of recommendations from all the attendings and chief resident. That was what broke me!! I stopped applying for residency after that being my 4th time of trying. The assistant PD informed me that their hands were tied because they had to give preference to American Graduates.
4) I started working solely as an “assistant physician” under collaboration with some local family medicine docs. I saw patients under supervision. This was what I have been doing for the past 4 years.
5) In the process... I started my Masters in Population Health at Jefferson.... not for a “ PLAN B” but solely to increase my earning potential.
6) This turned out to be a blessing because not only did it give me access to a broad range of physicians, CMOs etc... it prepared me for the health care of today in the advent of “Value Based Care” and a major focus on “Social Determinants of Health”. It also taught me leadership/ management skills which has been increasingly demanded of physicians these days especially in the hospital settings. So, it gave me an advantage in addition to my clinical skills gained both in Africa and here in the US.
A lot of physicians and fresh medical graduates struggle with how health care has changed from “pay per service” to “pay per value”. It is not taught in med schools.
7) Last year... with the onset of the pandemic, I volunteered and continue to do so as part of my state’s Medical Reserve Corp. I made myself available and seen. From testing to running psychological first aid for my community with guidance of course.
8) As pure coincidence, our local community Hospital decided to start two residency programs ( IM and FM) as part of an effort by the state to address physician shortage ( especially primary care). My husband and sister persuaded me to try one more time.....
I did…. in honesty just for the sake of it. I applied only to 6 programs.
- 2 IM
- 2 FM
- 2 Transitional year
I received only 2 Interview invitations. One from FM and one from IM (Both from the new residency programs in our local hospital).
The Interviews went well above what I had expected. Both FM and the IM program Directors scheduled second look interviews. The IM PD interviewed me again 2 weeks after my initial one with them. It lasted 2.5 hours!
The next week, they offered for me to go work with the assistant program Director at her personal clinic for a week (probably so she could get to know me and have a feel of my clinical skills) It went very well!!!!
On Match day..... I Matched!! I Matched with IM which was my first choice!!
So, I will be part of an Inaugural class of residents in my local community!! Can you believe that? Right in my own backyard... 10 minutes away from my home!! I don’t need to up and move or relocate anyone! My kids are a bit grown and independent now with the youngest 9 years. So, I am not changing any diapers if you get what I mean
It was made Perfect!! At God’s Time!!
So, yes the masters program gave me a little edge by making me relevant in today’s practice and a balance for programs training the physicians for tomorrow. But it was not the icing on the cake.
Having been sick for a few years even though it also delayed me and made matching even more difficult, gave me another advantage of seeing the world through the eyes of “the patient”. It helped me with patient rapport and initiating programs to help patients while I was working under 2 FM physicians . Their letters of recommendation were excellent!!
Even the Program Director of my masters degree at Jefferson Population Health offered and wrote a letter recommending me and touting my skills having supervised my research and capstone projects and publications.
I hope this helps answer most of your questions. I will let you know if I remember more as I tried to summarize over 10 years in a few paragraphs.
Oh... I became a US citizen during this whole process. I guess not needing a visa also helped.
N. E.
March 2021
Follow-Up
I met with the PD in person two days ago. I asked him the same questions that you did. He was willing to tell me why they ranked me. He said:
1) He was first intrigued with my personal statement! It made him want to talk with me some more because he felt my story was deep. He felt like he could tell the kind of person I was just from my personal statement.
2) He said during the Interview, I came across as authentic! His experience is that people come to interviews and just want to impress ...touting long accomplishments. In my case, I was genuine about my struggles, the good that came out of it and the bad as well. I addressed what I had done and still doing to address the bad.
3) He said I came across as someone with a high emotional intelligencethat was very necessary in patient communication and rapport with colleagues
4) I had quite a ton of US clinical experienceespecially with the Drexel Physician Refresher course
5) I already lived in the state of Delaware and interested in primary carewhich was the goal of the program (to address shortage of PCPs in the state). Their priority was looking for physicians that would remain in the state after training.
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