The CaRMS* tour has arrived at my university, and I spent today with a group of highly stressed applicants in dark-coloured suits acting as a spokesperson for my local program. This is my second year in this role, and it's something that I really enjoy doing, as I think my program has a lot of great features that aren't appreciated by out-of-town applicants, and I like having the opportunity to sell my program to people. Sitting in a nice hotel eating catered meals is also fun.
What struck me while talking to the candidates today was just how quickly the last three years have gone. It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I was in precisely the same position as the interviewees, and yet here I am as a senior resident who is only five months away from finishing my residency. As I watched the chief residents' presentation on our program, I was also struck by the fact that there are many things that I will never do again in my life. No more months as ward senior, no more night float, no more overnight call (EVER), no more fall residents' retreats, and no more CaRMS interview sessions (after two more sessions next week). While I don't long to do overnight call again, the realization that so much of my training is behind me is bittersweet.
I know that I whine a lot on this blog, but it's mostly a way of venting and not really reflective of how I feel. The last three years have been hard, but they've also been amongst the best in my life. The work that I do, the people I've met, the things I've learned - all of it has been an amazing journey, and one that I would recommend without hesitation to any of the bright and shiny young med students who are interviewing for internal medicine spots right now. I almost wish I could do it again.
Almost.
*The Canadian Residency Matching Service, which is the Canadian system for matching fourth year medical students with residency programs. Students tour around the country to interview at various schools, and then a complicated computer algorithm combines student preferences with residency program preferences and a bit of fairy dust to assign students to residency programs.
5 comments:
Thanks for volunteering to show us around - we love getting to meet residents who are not evaluating us, and hearing 1st hand about the program! The CaRMS tour has been fun so far, but also crazy stressful, so a friendly senior goes a long way.
- A Canadian med student interviewing for internal
Anonymous - Good luck with it all! Maybe we'll unknowingly cross paths while you're on your tour. I'll be the one talking about food in a really cold city.
All I have left is Halifax so probably not, but hope you keep having fun with your visiting interviewees!
Any improvement is hard. Heck, even my traveling, despite everything seen, learned, and discovered, was exhausting and quite a bit of work (the stress at the end notwithstanding, even). The end of the road always brings satisfaction, but rarely the desire to traverse the same potholes again!
I hated CaRMS and I"m so glad to be done with it. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.
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