Successful Match Day Recruits Top Candidates to UCSF
Juan Bautista
Juan Bautista stood nervously waiting to open the envelope that would dictate where he and his family would spend the next several years of their lives. While he loved his medical school experience at Northwestern University in Chicago, he wanted to match with UCSF Fresno to complete his obstetrics-gynecology residency and give back to the community in which he was raised.
“I wanted UCSF Fresno because the program offers the excellent faculty of UCSF with an emphasis on community medicine and the underserved, which was exactly where I wanted to dedicate my skills,” said Bautista.
The third Thursday of March was Match Day, the day when medical students across the country discover where the next step in their careers will take them.
While Bautista will be traveling across the country, many of the 142 excited fourth-year UCSF medical students learned they won’t be going very far with nearly one-third of them remaining at UCSF for their residency. The rest of the group is scattering to spots throughout the United States. Popular specialties among the class of 2011 include: internal medicine (42 students), pediatrics (20 students), family medicine (14 students), and obstetrics-gynecology (14 students).
UCSF has also recruited a talented group of 235 incoming residents to its many specialties. UCSF residents rotate through four major teaching campuses (UCSF Medical Center at Moffitt-Long Hospital, the Veterans' Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco General Hospital, and UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion), offering an unparalleled diversity of patient populations and a comprehensive clinical care experience.
"The residency programs had the best match in many years,” said Robert Baron MD, MS, professor of medicine and associate dean for graduate and continuing medical education. “We were able to recruit top candidates to UCSF in all specialties from primary care to our specialty programs.”
Creating a Patient-Centered Culture
Baron attributes the successful match to UCSF’s continued support of innovative, patient-centered and learner-centered training programs.
“One thing we’re doing that’s resonating with residents is being attentive to all aspects of training throughout the institution," Baron said. "We’ve started several innovative programs for enhanced opportunities in research and scholarship, offer a large number of workshops and other special training programs, built an innovative quality improvement incentive program, and have continued to improve the working environment and maintain adequate salary and benefits.”
“We’ve worked hard to create a patient-centered culture at each of our training sites which also pays close attention to the educational needs and health of our faculty and staff,” he added.
UCSF Fresno is also celebrating a very successful match, with 80 residents accepted out of 4014 applicants. The most popular specialties are internal medicine, emergency medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. The program is a clinical branch of the UCSF School of Medicine and was created to address the severe shortage of physicians practicing in California’s San Joaquin Valley and to increase access to continuing medical education in the region.
“I continue to be impressed by the caliber of students who come to UCSF Fresno to complete residency training,” said Joan Voris, MD, associate dean. “I am particularly pleased that that all available positions were filled. It is a validation of our medical education and research program that so many outstanding candidates match with us.”
For Bautista, that message has already made an impact. “I wanted UCSF Fresno because I want an emphasis on patient-centered care. This is a place that’s not just a geographic location, but a true community.”
Luckily for Bautista, when he opened his envelope, he got exactly what he wanted: a one way ticket back to Fresno. “Now I can return to my hometown and be an example to the youth there and set an example for future generations.”