Meeting their match: TTUHSC medical students excited to learn residency programs

Fourth-year medical students along with their families and friends sat anxiously Friday morning in the ballroom at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center awaiting to learn what the students' future would look like.

Red envelopes contained the decisions that took the National Resident Matching Program months to make in deciding where each student would spend the next five to seven years shadowing and gaining the last of the knowledge each student needs before practicing medicine on their own.

The path to get to the day's festivities was not an easy one.

Dr. Steven Berk, executive vice president of clinical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said these students started off their journey with a big hurdle.

"These students have sacrificed a lot — being so disciplined and studying so hard over so long a period of time," he said. "They were also the group of students who ran into COVID and so had to learn in medical school during the COVID pandemic."

For Holly Grossman, a Lubbock native, the night before the big day was spent with little sleep.

"Today it's kind of the culmination of not only just four years of hard work through medical school but also — before that — prepping for medical school," she said. "It really kind of shows all of our hard work up until this point."

She said she knew prior to opening her letter that she was going to get matched with a general surgery residency.

Grossman was not the only student anxiously awaiting the decision of the matching program.

Shree Patel and Parth Patel have known each other for eight years, meeting while undergrads at Texas Tech. During their third year in medical school, the two got engaged.

"We would definitely love to match in the same place," Shree said. "We're getting married in three weeks."

Shree and Parth — applying for diagnostic radiology and internal medicine residencies respectively — said they both hoped to get matched somewhere in Texas because they want to be close to their families.

"Throughout medical school and throughout undergrad — all of it — our family has been our biggest support system and so we wanted to be sure that that's something we could continue to rely on," Parth said.

As 11 a.m. ticked closer the energy in the Overton Hotel ballroom became palpable. Joyous yells filled the ballroom as students and family members jumped up and down, many hugging each other.

According to Berk, 48% of the 174 students are going into primary care with 55% of students staying in Texas and many students going around the nation to receive the final part of their education.

For Parth and Shree — their hope for the same residency program came true and both were matched a the University of Texas HSC in San Antonio.

Grossman was matched with the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education in Arizona.

In an interview after opening her envelope, Grossman said she and her family are excited about the match.

"It was one of my favorite programs," she said. "I went to visit in person to visit the residents and the faculty and get to see the hospital and everything and I absolutely loved it."

With the reputation of the Mayo Clinic and the dedication of the residents and staff, Grossman said she feels she will receive training that will enable her to become a great surgeon.

When asked what advice she would give her younger self, she said she would emphasize hard work and trusting that everything will work out.

"I think being able to kind of tell your past self 'You will put in the work and that work will come to fruition one day and you will end up where you're meant to be,'" she said.

While a majority of the students were nervous and anxiously awaited their match — one student was calm and enjoying the day because he had already known the results of his match prior to the day festivities.

Bailey Harvey grew up in San Angelo hearing about the work his grandfather did as a cardiologist.

"That's what got me interested," he said. "I majored in math and biochem at Angelo State and was lucky enough to get in the first time around at Texas Tech."

Going into medical school, Harvey thought he wanted to do surgery but said he was called into the specialty of radiology.

"I didn't want to just focus on one organ system — I thought the entire body was fascinating and with radiology, you're called the doctor's doctor," he said. "You have to be well versed in a lot of anatomy (and) a lot of pathology. And so I really wanted to be that guy when people had questions, I could answer them."

The reason why Harvey found out his match early is that he is a military student in the United States Navy.

Finding out his match in December, Harvey will spend his residency training in San Diego, California at the Naval Medical Center. After completing his residency, Harvey will serve as a physician in the Navy.

"So the goal for the future is just to make sure that I can support my family — my two kids, my wife and, hopefully, give them the best that they can have," he said.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech HSC medical students learn their match residency programs