The upstairs ballrooms at the Tarrant County Convention Center filled with excitement and a little anxiety, as medical students from the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine gathered for 'Match Day.'
"The match process is really a very rigorous process that begins day 1 of students' first day of medical school," TCOM Director of Medical Student Success Melva Landrum said. "It symbolizes their hard work. It symbolizes their dedication to wanting to become physicians and wanting to serve others."
For the 230 medical school students matched on Friday, part of their schooling was during a pandemic.
"So I think that actually helps them to be better prepared to serve as healthcare providers," Landrum said.
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60% of the TCOM students matched for primary care residency, an area where there is a shortfall of physicians in Texas. The rest matched in specialty fields of medicine.
"Psychiatry is a field where it really emphasizes the connection to other people, and it's something that I've always loved to do," TCOM medical student Aivien Do said as she waited to see if she would match for a psychiatry residency. "I think we really bond over some really tough moments."
Do has experience with tough moments.
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"Six years ago I was diagnosed with lymphoma," Do explained. "It really changed my life around."
After a year of cancer treatments and 5-years in remission, Do is cancer-free.
"It ended up kind of changing my perspective," Do said. "A lot of people want to be doctors, but do they know what it's like to be a patient?"
Do and her partner Rocco, who is also a TCOM medical student, were hoping for a 'partner match,' so they could do their residencies in the same city. They got it. Both were matched in Reading, Pennsylvania.
"I'm so excited," Do said. "We both get to pursue our dreams together!"
