In the U.S. medical education world, the third Friday in March is one of the highlights of the year.
Match Day is the day when fourth-year medical students all over the country learn to which residency programs they “match” after they graduate with their medical degrees.
It’s the day University of Washington medical student and Spokane native Sawyer Colvin learned he’d been accepted into a residency program in his hometown.
“The psychiatry program at Sacred Heart,” he said. It was his first choice and he was all smiles talking about it.
“I grew up in north Spokane in the Colbert area and I still have a lot of family here.”
Colvin left Spokane to complete his undergraduate studies, but when he was admitted to the UW School of Medicine, he chose the Spokane option over Seattle.
“I just love the community feel here. That's kind of what I prefer. So that's kind of why I bleed more Spokane, if anything,” he said.
Spokane’s medical pipeline starts to grow
When community leaders approached the UW in the 2000s about establishing a first-year medical program in Spokane, they envisioned students training here and then staying here, renewing and bolstering the city’s medical industry. They also worked to establish more residency programs in a variety of specialties where those new doctors could build their skill levels.
Initially, the number of Spokane medical students who chose to remain and begin their careers here was small, perhaps one or two a year. That number is slowly increasing.
The UW School of Medicine plans to release specific match figures this week, but early indications are that a half dozen or more of this year’s graduating class, including Sawyer Colvin, will remain in Spokane.
Washington State’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine reports on its website that at least eight of its students will spend all or part of their residency years (usually three) in Spokane.
Other Inland Northwest communities will benefit as well. According to the WSU website, one student is ticketed for a residency program in Kalispell, Montana. Among the UW students who announced their matches at a University District party on Friday, at least one is headed to Coeur d’Alene and one to Colville.
The Spokane medical school experience
Regardless of whether they stay in Spokane after graduation, students from both programs give the city high marks for education and livability.
They include Matt Thomas and Maddie Chun, UW students who are engaged and headed to Seattle after graduation. Thomas will specialize in general surgery, Chun in psychiatry.
“I expected to be holed up and studying in my house and not having community and just staying focused on the material,” Chun said. “I walked away with a fiancé who I met at med school, some of my best friends who are going to be in my bridal party, and memories that I'm going to carry forward forever, as well as really solid clinical training that put me on this trajectory to my number one program.”
“You get the excellent medical education during the day, but then in the evening in downtown Spokane you have access to all of the rich culture that's down there,” Thomas said.
“You’ve got a symphony, you’ve got Broadway shows, you’ve got music venues that big artists come through, access to great restaurants, and just this beautiful downtown with a waterfall right in the middle of it. And a city that's so welcoming to students,” he said. “”I have absolutely zero regrets.”
With the big reveal now done, Sawyer Colvin and his classmates will turn to finishing the last few weeks of their clinical programs and then graduation. WSU’s commencement ceremony will be May 3 in Spokane, the UW’s is scheduled for May 23 in Seattle.
Then, in June or July, the newly-certificated doctors will begin their careers.
“I have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be about because I did my psychiatry rotations in medical school with the same program,” Sawyer Colvin said.
“Going into general surgery, I know I'm going to go in overwhelmed, terrified and probably pretty bad at most things that I do,” Matt Thomas said.
“What I'm excited for is having that moment somewhere down the line where I look back at where I started and realize how far I've come while still knowing that there is a lot of room left to keep on improving.”
