Recruitment efforts bear fruit

Wednesday of this week was Fellowship Match Day and we celebrated with two sets of groups in our department. First, those third-year internal medicine residents who chose to pursue subspecialty training found out where they will be heading next. Congratulations to all of you on the navigation of a nerve-wracking process, all while still completing the requirements of your current training program. We are excited to report that of the 21 residents who entered this year’s fellowship match, 100% of them have successfully matched into their subspecialty of choice. All of you can rest assured that you have already achieved so much, and this department has been as proud of you as we were on that Match Day in 2021 when we learned you would join us. I think I can speak for all your faculty attendings, mentors, educators, and clinical colleagues when I say we cannot wait to see what big things we know you will do next. We are especially pleased that 8 of those 21 residents matched into our fellowships here at University of Iowa Health Care. Your commitment to us for another three or more years of education is a mark, we think, of the positive experiences you have had with us and your belief that there is real value here. As we do every year, we have updated the national map indicating where the last five years’ worth of residency graduates have headed next. Congratulations!

And, of course, the other group we celebrate with this week are the leaders, educators, and support staff in our department’s 17 fellowship programs. All of you have worked hard to spread the good word about the great things happening at Iowa in your searches for candidates who are just the right fit. You reviewed hundreds of applications, conducted dozens and dozens of interviews, and responded to an innumerable stack of emails and questions. Thank you for your dedication to preserving and enriching these important—and for many, final—steps in a physician’s formal training. Out of these fellowships come well-rounded clinicians and physician-scientists deeply expert in specific areas of academic medicine. The next breakthroughs in translational and basic research often come from fellows who have the time and the mentoring to immerse on big questions from fresh perspectives. Although, as of this writing, a couple of our fellowship programs have not filled all their open slots—mirroring national trends in those subspecialties—we know that those who have matched at Iowa will make superlative additions to the Hawkeye family. As the new academic year approaches mid-summer 2024, we will introduce you to them.

Although our fellowship programs’ administrative teams can pause now to take a well-deserved breath, they know that the work of recruiting the fellows who will join us in 2025 will begin soon. Meanwhile, the months of twice-weekly interview days for residency recruitment is nearing its halfway mark. This is a good moment to thank all the faculty who have made themselves available to participate in these sessions. Your presence sends an accurate message to the candidates that our department deeply appreciates the role our residents and the residency program plays here. We can also thank the faculty leadership and the administrative team in the residency program for their skills at running such a smooth operation, letting our candidates know we value their time and willingness to learn more about us. Finally, a thank you to our Chief Resident for recruitment, Dr. Reed Johnson. His efforts these last few months provide an illustrative example of how we can all get creative in recruitment, whether it is for residency, our fellowship programs, or even for new faculty.

Dr. Johnson has worked diligently all summer and fall with our communications team to re-organize our residency program’s digital footprint. If you have not explored the pages within our program’s website, you should take a few minutes to browse. You can start on the “About the Program” page, which has a more concise feel than before, categorizing a wealth of information with the candidate in mind. The “Educational Experience” page gathers links to standout elements like our point-of-care ultrasound curriculum and other areas residents can focus on, but also aspects like more detailed explanations of the curricula. He has also pulled a variety of scattered elements together like the “Resident Life and Well-being” page. In addition to better organization, Dr. Johnson has also worked closely with Lori Strommer, Cory Sheets, and the digital media services team to add vibrant video content throughout the site. This kind of work is never done and needs constant refreshing to stay current, but investment in this area provides clear returns, given the quality of the candidates who apply year after year to come to Iowa. Keep up the great work, all, and we will see another outstanding set of interns in March 2024 on the next Match Day.

As a postscript, I asked Dr. Johnson to choose some standout videos they have produced this year as part of the website content refresh. Here are five:

Campus Tour

Hospitalist Rotation

Physician Scientist Training Pathway (PTSP)

LGBTQ Clinic

Distinction in Medical Education (DIME)