Family Medicine top residency choice for Schulich Medicine students in 2016 CaRMS match
For the third year in a row, Family Medicine is the top residency choice for Schulich Medicine students. The 2016 Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) results were delivered to students on March 2, and more than 40 per cent of the Class of 2016 chose Family Medicine.
Of those students, more than half selected a residency program in a small-or medium-sized community, with students choosing training settings ranging from Ontario First Nations communities to their own home towns.
Overall Schulich Medicine students matched to many highly competitive and prestigious programs across the country in a variety of disciplines. After Family Medicine, the most popular specialty choices of this year’s graduates were Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Psychiatry, Obstetrics, and Emergency Medicine.
“In choosing their post-graduate residency training, our students were thoughtful in considering the needs of the patients and health of our province and country,” said Dr. Gary Tithecott, associate dean, Undergraduate Medical Education. “We are pleased to see so many students embracing the opportunities to train in specialties, such as family medicine and psychiatry that are critically needed at this time across the country, including many rural and regional health networks.”
In reviewing the 2016 results, Dr. Tithecott provided some interesting insights into the residency match outcome of Schulich Medicine students. “For a third year in a row, our students made Psychiatry one of their top choices of discipline, contributing to filling an important national need in the area of mental health care,” he said.
Dr. Tithecott noted that he was especially pleased, this year, to see Schulich Medicine & Dentistry’s Psychiatry program fill completely in the first iteration, including two newly established positions in Windsor. Five of the 10 positions in the program were filled by Schulich Medicine students.
This year, the School also saw a growing number of students electing to enter Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The students choosing this discipline were primarily women from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Dr. Michael Rieder, assistant dean (Undergraduate) Learner Equity & Wellness (LEW), attributed the strong general surgery match of Schulich Medicine students to the robust surgical training enterprise that exists at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, which he believes helps to generate a strong interest in the specialty.
The School plans to work closely with each individual who was not successful in this initial round of match in the second iteration of the CaRMS process.
The UME Program and LEW leadership will analyze all the results and use learnings to improve learner success for future CaRMS matches.
