Dr. Mark Kline sits in his office checking his watch. At one minute before 1 p.m. on March 20th he’s feeling anxious. At exactly 1 p.m. is the moment he will find out the group of residents matched to Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine’s residency programs. It’s that moment when the leader of each program across the country is able to log in to a website where their matches are revealed. The residency programs affiliated with Texas Children’s include a categorical pediatric residency program, a pediatric global health program, the surgery residency as well as the residency in obstetrics and gynecology. For Dr. Kline and the other leaders involved, this is the culmination of months of interviewing.
“I meet with every hopeful resident who visits us to tell them about our organization and what it means to be here,” said Kline. “What I’m looking for is people who are not just smart but nice. I don’t need them to be nice to me, everyone is nice to me, I want them to be nice to people who have no power over their position here.”
Kline calls it “accessible brilliance.” A phrase he uses often when referring to recruitment at all levels. Whether it’s residents or chiefs of service, it’s a quality that exemplifies the Texas Children’s brand. Today, it’s the residents who have matched to the institution and will be bringing that accessible brilliance to an organization which touches about 8,500 patients daily.
When he’s finally given the list, Kline and his chief residents compare the matches to the list of top candidates who were interviewed. Each year, Texas Children’s interviews hundreds of hopeful residents, when the interviews are over, the organization is given a chance to pick candidates and rank them on a list. The residents are given the same opportunity to pick their top programs ranked similarly. Each student is then matched to the institution that is highest on the list and has ranked them on the top of theirs. It’s highly competitive between the top children’s hospitals across the nation.
What attracts residents here is not just the breath and depth of cases they will be able to see, it’s the leaders who become their mentors throughout their years here.
On March 21st, less than 24 hours after residency program directors have been informed of their residents, it’s the medical students’ turn to count down to their own matches. Baylor College of Medicine hosted a Match Day 2014 brunch for the students and their families as they celebrated this momentous day in their journeys to becoming doctors. Residents gathered in the Baylor courtyard anxiously pacing about as they waited for 11 a.m. A 10 second countdown led to the class president ripping open a paper-covered board where each student found an envelope with their names; inside, a letter congratulating them on their match with the name of the program where they will be spending the next few years as residents.
Loud cheers, some tears of joy and lots of hugging and the residents were finally able to celebrate their accomplishments. A day they’ve awaited for years. A day where they could find out they have been matched to programs like those at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine.
“The better talent that we can attract at this level right out of medical school, the better we will be 5 years, 10 years, 15 years down the line,” said Kline.