Albany medical students learn about next steps

Fourth-year medical students at Albany Medical College gathered along with faculty and staff Friday for the annual Match Day Ceremony at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences gym.

The students tore open envelopes to learn where they will spend the next several years in medical training in the right of passage for future physicians.

According to the college:

■ Forty-nine students, or 36 percent, were matched to programs in New York State. Forty-four percent of this year’s class will pursue primary care specialties, including family medicine, internal medicine, medicine/pediatrics, pediatrics and obstetrics/ gynecology.

■ Seventeen students will stay at Albany Medical Center and fill residency positions in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, medicine/ pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, otolaryngology, pediatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, plastic surgery, and psychiatry.

Following medical school, physicians enter residency programs for an additional three to seven years of training. A resident is a physician who has graduated from medical school and is undergoing specialized training in a medical specialty. Residency assignments begin in July. Fourth-year medical students apply to several residency programs in a specific specialty while residency programs rank the students they have interviewed. Students and programs are then “matched” by computer by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Medical students across the country today participated in similar Match Day ceremonies.