A good day...

Match day turned out to be a pretty good day for everyone I know who was trying to match. Especially for a friend of a friend of mine. Her name is Lucia, and she is a foreign medical graduate (FMG) from South America who graduated medical school in 2000.

Now, in case you aren't aware, it is damn near impossible for FMG's to become physicians in the US for a plethora of reasons. First and foremost is probably because of stigma and bias. Second, they must successfully pass their USMLE's in ENGLISH... which is a tough task for native speaking physicians, and third, they have to beat out the 1,000's of FMG's that apply every year.

So Lucia wanted to go into psychiatry, but after she moved to the US she couldn't get a residency spot. She failed Step 1 the first time, but subsequently passed all three steps. She applied to hundreds of programs.... every po-dunk program she could... but never got even 1 interview. She worked in clinical research, did research at the NIH, and kept up her studies. She reapplied year after year.... and still never got even 1 interview.

Finally, this year, after being out of medical school for 10 years, she matched. All because a friend helped her get an interview and a week of shadowing. And the school she's at ain't too shabby, folks.

Congrats Lucia! She definitely gets the prize for tenacity. Oh yeah, and her 2nd baby is due the week before residency starts in July.

T-E-N-A-C-I-T-Y.