When Dr. Sheila Maurer was asked to share her residency search experience with students at Oceania University of Medicine, the Student Affairs Office sent her a brochure from the American Academy of Family Physicians called “Strolling through the Match.”

The MD graduate from OUM in 2012 chuckled when she saw it. “That’s a nice way of putting it,” she said. By the end of the session it was easy to see why she chuckled. Research, applications, visits, interviews, follow-up, more follow-up – the process of securing a residency is clearly no walk in the park. It’s very hard work.

1.  Be Open Minded about Program Choices and Apply to Many 

“One of my rotation supervisors said ‘apply wisely, apply everywhere, and apply to different programs.’ He said that he was afraid that as foreign medical graduates, our options might be limited and just more difficult, in general,” says Sheila. “He advised us that getting into an internal medicine or family medicine program was a good idea, even if we wanted to specialize later. He felt that applying as a current resident who had already been successfully accepted into a program and was actively completing post-graduate training, would make it easier to get into the specialty we ultimately wanted.”

Applying for more than one specialty wasn’t a stretch for Sheila. She would have been truly happy matching in internal medicine or family practice and had different career goals for each specialty, she says. Sheila had always leaned toward primary care because she had been a family nurse practitioner for 15 years and thought she would miss the variety and being in a hospital setting. She had always intended to go into family medicine or internal medicine. In fact, she felt strongly about becoming a hospitalist, shift work doing hospital admissions. But as she progressed through clinical rotations, she became very interested in psychiatry.

“As a nurse practitioner in a rural area, I had to deal with many different clinical issues, including mental health, so I had gone to a lot of conferences to be prepared for my patients,” Sheila recalls. “A couple weeks into my psych rotation, I went into my supervisor’s office and told him that I REALLY liked this. I found the work rewarding and went home happy every day. Even my family noticed that I was much more pleasant to be around during the psychiatry rotation than I had been during medicine or surgery.”

Sheila also credits some of her interest in psychiatry to one of OUM’s supporters in the Baltimore area, Dr. Mark Komrad, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at OUM. “OUM is fortunate to have clinical rotations available at Shepard Pratt Health System, which is one of the top mental health programs and psychiatry residency training programs in the US.  Dr. Komrad has been a longtime supporter of OUM who likes to meet regularly with clinical students. He feels a strong connection to the school and says he is fascinated with many of our stories about coming to medical school later in life. I highly recommend that you complete a psychiatry rotation at Shepard Pratt if you are able,” says Sheila.

2.  Visit FREIDA Online To Research Residency Programs

Moving forward, she took all of that advice quite seriously. Sheila recommends researching residency programs at FREIDA Online – the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database, an online database of all US graduate medical education accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, provided at no charge by the American Medical Association.

She says it’s a great way to learn about the residency programs in your area or in the areas you may be able to relocate, such as near family or friends in other cities or states. Information available includes first year salary; daily/weekly work hours expected, number of positions available, and links to the programs web sites to learn more. And if there are programs that you already know, early on, that you would really like to train at, start making contact with them and ask questions before match season starts . . . even up to a year ahead of time.

3.  Be Persistent

FREIDA also identifies if programs have a history of accepting foreign medical graduates. Sheila clarifies that just because a program hasn’t previously looked at many students from foreign medical schools, doesn’t mean they won’t look at you.

“It may be a bit harder, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try,” she says. “And once you do move forward with a particular program, don’t give up, either on yourself or a program you really like.”

Another recommendation – be very nice to program coordinators in residency offices. They are vitally important, according to Sheila, who also says not to limit communication solely to program directors. “Stay in touch with program coordinators and copy them on all emails you send to the director. They keep track of those contacts and can be the people who schedule interviews. Coordinators work with not only the director, but other members of the selection committee. It really is OK to let a coordinator know that you are very interested in their program. Anything you can do to make sure they remember you can be a real advantage,” she says.

Sheila couldn’t emphasize enough the importance of following up with programs that you really want to interview with, but haven’t yet contacted you. “Be specific about why you want to meet them. Update them if you receive new USMLE test scores, finish rotations, etc. Let them know that you would be happy to fill in if they get interview cancellations. About half of my interviews were with programs that had cancellations, and I had followed up to let them know I was still interested.”

4.  Don’t Limit Yourself

While she acknowledges that it can be very difficult for some to do, Sheila advises students not to limit themselves to a certain geographic area. If possible, at least consider programs that may be near family or friends in other locations to give yourself more opportunities than only those in your hometown area.

“I was fortunate to get most of my inquiries and interviews within 2-3 hours of where I live,” she says.

But she also recommends being as mobile as possible because some programs simply don’t have many openings. She mentioned one program where she applied that received 1,300 applications for only three available slots. Those ratios are not uncommon.

5.  Customize your Personal Statements

If time permits, Sheila advises trying to customize your personal statements. “Tell them why you would be willing to move to their program – family in the area, history of living there that might not be apparent from your CV, reasons why you specifically like or want to train at their program. I found that programs did, to some degree, offer interviews to students that were regionally nearby or at least had a connection to the area,” she says.

Hard Work and Persistence Pay Off

“All in all, I had interviews with eleven psychiatry residency programs and had to decline one due to scheduling. I also interviewed with two family medicine programs and one in internal medicine. I went for second looks at six psychiatry programs, one for internal medicine and I was on waiting lists at two family medicine programs,” Sheila says.

On Match Day, March 15, 2013, Sheila matched at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, where she became a first-year psychiatry resident in July.

Dr. Maurer’s discussion with OUM students was part of a student-to-student mentoring program at OUM, known as Talofa.  Named for the Samoan word for “hello,” the Talofa program pairs advanced medical students with newer students to help guide and support them through medical school.

Based in the South Pacific and with online pre-clinical courses, Oceania University of Medicine (OUM) is accredited by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, listed in the World Health Organization’s World Directory of Medical Schools, and recognized by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Located on the grounds of the National Hospital Complex in Apia, Samoa, OUM offers MD and MBBS degrees to its graduates and has a current student body of approximately 140 from eleven countries. Graduates are receiving their post-graduate residency and internship specialty training at teaching hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, and the United States. For more information about OUM, visit www.oum.edu.ws.