The 2021 NRMP match is going to be challenging -- and different -- for all medical students across the country, regardless of specialty. Emergency Medicine is no exception and has some unique challenges. As of this writing, the EM Match picture is looking something like this:
- Away -- aka "Audition" -- Rotations nationally are effectively cancelled. Schools are understandably concerned about accepting visiting students to their institutions who may a) bring COVID with them, b) get sick with COVID from catching it while rotating or c) bring COVID from the away institution back to their home institution.
- Interviews are being conducted virtually. Understandably, the NRMP wants to limit air travel and possible further national spread of coronavirus.
- Application deadlines have been pushed back. Keep track on the NRMP website. Do not miss any deadlines.
- Applicants will provide one eSLOE and one letter of recommendation that will have some type of standardized format TBD that will be provided by CORD.
How can students cope with this?
- Networking, networking, networking. Talk to everyone you know in Emergency Medicine. Get those people to put you in touch with other people they know. Use your 6-degrees of separation to start talking to people at programs you might be interested in.
- Attend virtual meet and greets and other virtual events as much as possible. Some programs are creating informational videos or having a series of virtual recruitment events. Dig deep into the websites of programs -- blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts, etc. Find these events and attend them.
- Clean up your online presence. Take down the drunken photos on Facebook and Instagram, remove inflammatory Tweets/posts, protect your personal information.
- Get some basic camera training. Learn how to look at the camera, not your computer screen, when you are talking via videochat. This isn't FaceTime with your family.
- Think about who can provide your letter of recommendation. Remember, the writer needs to be able to speak about what you will be like as an intern, but the writer does not need to be an emergency physician.
- Trust your gut instinct. A program might look like your dream on paper -- but when you start meeting people you might find that conversations are falling flat. Ask yourself, "Do I want to be hanging out with this person at 3am when I am exhausted and there are 10 patients waiting to be seen?" If the answer is anything other than an enthusiastic "yes!", that place might not be perfect for you. Similarly, when you start clicking with every person you meet at a program, be happy. You have found your tribe.
You got this.
Written by
Leah Bralow, MD
Comments
Post a Comment