Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors

by Brian Eule

Each year on the third Thursday in March, more than fifteen thousand graduating medical students exult, despair, and endure Match the result of a computer algorithm that assigns students to their hospital residencies in almost every field of medicine. The match determines the crucial first job as an intern, and ultimately shapes the rest of his―or, in increasing numbers, her―life.

Match Day follows three women from the anxious months of preparation before the match through the completion of their first full year of internship. Each has long dreamed of becoming a doctor. Stephanie Chao is beginning her career as a surgeon. Rakhi Barkowski must balance her husband's aspirations with her own desire to work in internal medicine. Michelle LaFonda moves forward in her quest to become a radiologist, but struggles to find progress in her personal relationship. Each woman makes mistakes, saves lives, and witnesses death; each must recognize the balancing act of family and career; and each comes to learn what it means to heal, to comfort, to lose, and to grieve, all while maintaining a professional demeanor.

Just as One L became the essential book about the education of young attorneys, so Match Day will be for every medical student, doctor, and reader interested in a guide to what to expect, an insightful account of the changing world of doctors, and a dramatic recollection of this pressured, perilous, challenging, and rewarding time of life.

Genres: Medical, Nonfiction, Medicine, Memoir, Science, Biography, Biography Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2009

Reviews

[Shana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Next on the list: Brian Eule’s Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors, which I had been looking forward to since coming across a description of this event online. It sounds like a very emotional and thrilling day, kind of like a bigger version of college acceptance/rejection season. I never knew there was this whole system to how residents are matched with hospitals and programs!

Eule’s introduction into this world came from his then girlfriend (now wife), who was in medical school. It was through her and her friends that he learned about Match Day and all the meanings attached to it. Curiously enough, besides following his own partner’s progression through this process, he also chose to follow two other women. There are men in this book, but their roles are secondary to the three main women. I wondered whether this was a conscious effort or if it was simply a matter of convenience. Unfortunately, his discussion of gender in the medical field was the usual “well, it’s hard to balance a family and school,” kind of stuff, which was a bit disappointing, But then again the whole book didn’t serve to go much further than his own experience as the boyfriend/husband of a resident and some minor research into the issues faced by residents today (all stuff I basically already knew from previous reading). If you’re looking for a basic understanding of what residents go through in the US, this might be a good introductory book. But for a more in depth look into the medical system, I would suggest looking elsewhere for information.

[Rosanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was bored, and also had a lot of trouble telling the three women's stories apart. I wish there would have been chapters dedicated to each one. I admit I got a little tired of the Match Day statistics, etc. Would have liked this as three stories without it being so focused on one thing.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book while travelling to and from a business trip over the weekend. It is a very quick read as Eule profiles 3 young doctors, including his girlfriend, as they await the matching that will provide them with the next chapter in their medical training. Each doctor is interested in a different specialty and at a different place in her personal life. All females, the doctors profiled not only had to endure this long training, but figure out when and if a pregnancy and caring for children could fit in.
Eule and his girlfriend, Stephanie, a prospective surgeon, may have the easiest time of all. As an author, Eule is flexible to wherever Stephanie lands with the match, but surgery is a notoriously difficult training program and could strain their relationship. Eule's friends Michelle and Ted are both entering the match program, she to be a radiologist, he an anesthesiologist, and face the dilemma of whether to enter as a couple and get matched together (but perhaps not in either of their top choices) or put their relationship on the line if they get matched at hospitals far apart. Lastly is Rakhi, whose husband Stephen has applied to graduate school at UCLA, and Rakhi must decide whether to keep her dream internal medicine program in San Francisco at the top of her match list or move UCLA up from 2nd.
Eule also goes into detail about how the residency match program works, as it is similar to the college matching program, though both the applicant and the hospital have much more invested into the success of the match, and spots are more competitive depending on the specialty. If a program chooses its favorite applicants and an applicant doesn't make the cut, but the applicant hasn't put enough programs on the ranked list, there is the risk that the applicant will come out unmatched. Likewise, if a program doesn't do its best to woo candidates, it may get too few applicants to fill its spots. After everything shakes out, the least popular programs are left with the unsuccessful applicants, sort of a consolation prize for both.
After the 3 doctors, who all get successful matches (along with Ted), join their chosen programs (I won't spoil it by saying where they went), Eule follows them for their internship year, both inside and outside the hospital. I imagine this was all via e-mail and conversation, as he clearly lived where Stephanie was matched and even then made it sound like he wasn't shadowing her at work or anything like that.
Overall, a great book, albeit a fast read. There were some really good patient stories, but being the first year, some of the doctors had more to tell than others. It was comprehensive in covering the professional and personal lives of the doctors, probably about a 50/50 ratio, so I may have liked it to be more like 75/25 as I did start getting a little weary of reading about Michelle and Ted time and time again discussing their relationship but not making any final decisions. Eule did provide an epilogue, so readers know a little bit about what happened after the internship year, but the book came out soon after, so it only covers the next year or so. Would be interested to read about everyone in the later years of the training after it is complete, though I imagine all are still in the midst of it.

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough in some respects (reminds me in places of the way cadets choose assignments at West Point...), but it's rather devoid of tension, no? Eule brings in some interesting statistics and anecdotes, but his book is structured mostly around three women who are first waiting to be matched with residencies and then undergoing their intern year. They are subjects of convenience -- Eule's then-girlfriend and two friends -- rather than subjects selected because they are particularly interesting, unique, etc.

That the book focuses specifically on female doctors is a potentially interesting spin, but I'm not convinced that it goes far enough. While Eule acknowledges that female doctors/residents can have it harder than male, he doesn't really make any attempt to probe deeper. (Among other things, when one of the people he follows does get pregnant, there's no discussion of any difficulties along the way.) Also...he's not in medicine himself, which might be the reason the book doesn't feel as substantial as it might. A huge portion of it relies on stories from the women involved (and, in the case of the two friends, their significant others), which are all secondhand. Many, many journalistic books rely on secondhand information, of course, but...I'm not sure. Perhaps he just didn't have the access necessary to take this deeper. (And he was probably hampered somewhat by wanting to paint flattering pictures, since these are his friends/partner.)

In terms of tension...well, what tension there is is pretty much over before the book hits page 100, because by then they've all made their matches. I'm not sure if Eule decided to carry the story through the first year of residency because there wasn't enough material otherwise, because he didn't really start on the book idea until close to match day, because he wanted to show his relationship progression, or for other reasons, but honestly, I was more interested in the drama (or 'drama') of matching, the algorithm used, etc., than in the very minor dramas of the ensuing year. Another place where it might have helped to have more subjects.

So in theory engaging, but in practice, I'd much rather read either a memoir by someone who did undergo residency, or something journalistic with more depth and nuance.

Oh -- other than West Point, the other thing the matching process reminds me of? Sororities.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading non-fiction about medicine. This was not the greatest book I ever read, but it was enough to keep my interest. I would recommend this book to readers who truly love reading about medicine. If you are looking for a book with lots of excitement and drama, this is NOT the book for you.

[Trish Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, I read it when I still wanted to pursue medicine. The people in the book seem like they have connections and come from money, so I had a lot of eyeroll moments. Like I literally didn't go to Harvard so we are not the same. Informative nonetheless

[kathi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read around 150 pages...didn't finish it or like it...

[Annalise Rome · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The writing was a bit simple but I enjoyed the refreshingly, easy-to-follow narrative. I liked the personal stories.

[Betty Stoneking]

If you love Doctors books .You will like this boolk its about 3 doctors live you will like this book.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Match Day is the most important — and most nerve wracking — day for graduating students in every medical school in the United States, as more than 15,000 fourth years find out which residency program they have been matched to. The process involves a complicated dance, in which students interview at different hospitals and medical schools with their prospective program directors, attending physicians, and future resident colleagues, and both the students and the residency programs submit ranked lists; the students indicate which programs they would most prefer to attend, and the residency programs rate which students they desire the most. A computer program in a small room in the nation's capital compiles this data and spits out its results, in a process that cannot be challenged by the students or program directors.

On Match Day, each student is given a sealed envelope in an auditorium, in a ceremony filled with extreme tension and high emotions, as the students' career plans and the schools' reputation for placing their graduates in the top programs are on the line. Medical students are by nature competitive, highly driven, and even more highly anxious, and each has spent countless hours on the Match process and lost nearly as many hours of sleep worrying about it. At several schools, including my own, one or more local television news stations film the ceremony, which is broadcast on that evening's news. As each student opens his or her envelope, screams of joys are mingled with silent tears or looks of stunned disbelief, depending on the individual Match results.

For some students, generally those who are not married, in a serious relationship, or seeking a very unique career path,the program they match to is not critical, as long as they get into a solid one. However, many students do have fiancees, or spouses with or without children, whose lives are also deeply affected by the contents of those envelopes.

Brian Eule, the author of Match Day, writes poignantly of his experiences as a person removed from the process, yet deeply affected by it as his girlfriend, a surgeon who is now his wife, and two other couples go through the Match and intern year. All three women are in medicine, whereas two of the men are not, in keeping with the dramatic strides made to equalize the gender bias in U.S. medical schools in the past 25 years (my graduating class was the first in the 100-plus year history of the school to have more women than men, and practically all schools have achieved gender parity). Eule's description of the day to day lives of these interns, their spouses, and the effect of medical school and residency on their relationships is spot on; each doctor struggles daily with the soul crushing demands of intern year, each non-medical spouse tries to be as supportive as possible while putting their own needs and desires on a back burner, and each couple's love is challenged on a regular basis. This excerpt by Eule about his wife and their relationship is especially insightful:

It would always be a tug-of-war. I had come to terms with the idea that I was marrying a woman with a double identity. For the thirty seconds she sat in the car with me, she was the Stephanie I had known for the last six years. But running back into the hospital, she was a woman whose level of responsibility would always be hard for me to relate to, no matter how much I learned from her and from my friends about the culture of becoming a doctor.

Match Day is a superb book about the lives of young doctors and their partners, which would be of special interest to medical students, their significant others and families, but I would also recommended it to the general reader, as Eule tells a compelling and highly readable account of love under highly stressful circumstances.

[Annie]

Got this book as a birthday present from my friend Ros. (Thank you Ros!) I finished it within ~2 weeks of picking it up - it was a combination of my intense fascination with interviewing and the residency match process - now that I'm immersed in it - and my procrastinating studying for Step II and my neuro shelf. Either way, it was a quick read and not disappointing. A little on the cheesy side at times, but heartfelt and down to earth. This is a true story narrated by a guy whose girlfriend is a UCSF 4th year medical student going through the match for Gen Surg. He also tells the story of 2 more female 4th year medical students in NYC, one who ends up at UCLA for medicine and the other at her home program for radiology. The book was interesting, but it left out so much of the drama as med students feel it, simply bc the narrator wasn't going through the process himself. So definitely it felt a little emptier than some fiction I've read. Also, there was a lot of descriptive parts that I already know about and so bored me. But this would be a good book to give to someone not in medicine whose loved one (child, sibling, best friend, partner) was going through the match.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the book was going to lead up to the Match Day reveal, but it actually takes the Match as its departure point. One of the doctors profiled in the book describes the trip to the Match Day ceremony as reminiscent of the climb of a roller coaster, before you shoot off onto the ride. Eule lays out the stakes for each doctor -- relationships, partners' careers, families, and of course career opportunities -- and then follows each doctor (all young women) through her intern year. (That's season 1 Grey's Anatomy, kids.) But really, like the best non-fiction, the book is about people learning about themselves and each other. Humans are really interested in other humans, and the post-med school intern year is a framework for Eule to explore the connections between doctors and patients, other doctors, spouses, friends, and family.

[Amanda (Books, Life and Everything Nice) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Match Day by Brian Eule is an informative interesting novel about the process of match day. We learn that match day is the important date for doctors in which they learn where they will spend their first year working after medical school. The book is very informative about a process that not many people besides doctors know much about. Match Day follows three doctors from their last year in medical school awaiting their match to the end of their first year as a doctor. The author showed the tolls working as a doctor takes on a person and their family. I like that the doctors seemed personable. Match Day also brings up some interesting points such as the impact work hours potentially have on patient safety. All in all, Match Day by Brian Eule gives a personal look into the very important period in a doctor's life. Worth a read if the topic interests you.

[Nette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad -- I almost always enjoy medical memoirs, and this one was well-written -- but I didn't really connect with the excitement and stress surrounding Match Day, when the three featured medical students find out where they're going to intern. Will this brilliant and talented student match to her first choice, UC San Francisco, or her second choice, UCLA? Will this one be matched to a school near her boyfriend? (Dramatically, it's right up there with "Will the Stanford summa cum laude be accepted at the London School of Economics or accept the fellowship at Yale?") It would have been more interesting if he'd included a student with marginal grades or a desperately poor family or a drinking problem.

[Ellyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows three female doctors through their last year of medical school and first year of residency. It also explores medical education in the United States and how it has changed over the years and looks at some of the special challenges facing the growing numbers of female doctors, such as work/life balance and when and if to have children. I thought it was a really interesting book; it provides lots of insight into what it takes to become a doctor, and the hopes, goals, and challenges of the three women are really brought to life. One of the three women is the author's girlfriend, so some of the book is also about their own personal experiences, which brings a memoir-like quality to it.

[miteypen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Match Day reveals what medical students have to go through to get residencies. I wasn't aware of "The Match" until I started working for a company that prepares foreign doctors to take their medical licensing exams. It's a crazy and somewhat mysterious system and the author does a good job of explaining it. He also covers the first year of residency, the debate over long hours and details about the various specializations. This would be an excellent book for someone in his or her early years of medical school or who is just thinking of medicine as a career choice. It's not terribly deep and the parts about the residents' personal lives is a bit dry, but overall it's a good introduction to the topic.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a really interesting book. It traces the lives of 3 women from the time they're medical students about to be 'matched' by a computer algorithm to residency programs at hospitals around the country. The 3 women are different, all in relationships, one partner being a medical student as well, and within the year of their internship, we follow them through their experiences with facing death, making mistakes, struggling to maintain their relationships, and also learning how to heal and provide comfort to their patients.

The book brings us behind the professional facade these doctors need to maintain and allows us to see them as the dedicated, strong and at times scared and fragile people they are.

[Elynor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eule follows the Match stories of 4 different med students.Just the book I've been looking for! As the spouse of an M3--almost M4--next year's Match is on my mind a lot. I really appreciated how this book is told from the perspective of the SO (boyfriend, later husband) of a med student. Read in one weekend. Things that I will now think about as my husband and I start the ranking process next year: does the residency have a spouse support group? is there housing near the hospital (sleep deprived interns are at risk for car crash)? is the location vibrant enough that I can find an enriching social life while my husband is owned by the hospital during intern year? :P

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

very well-written, engaging book about the internship match process, and then the internship year itself, for physicians in training. He gives general overview, cites studies and position papers (e.g., in relation to the debate over whether interns/residents' long hours and resulting fatigue play a role in causing preventable medical errors), but for the most part the book follows three interns through the process. One is the author's girlfriend, but he brings the other couples to life nearly as well. One of the couples breaks up during the year, and a major sub-plot of the book is the difficulty in sustaining normal relationships when you are working around the clock.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this book was well-written and an incredible fast read (meaning it kept me reading - I didn't want to put it down!). I really appreciated Eule's earnest perspective on the lives of those in the field of medicine and his exploration of relationships within the medical field. As a female going into medicine, this book was really helpful in terms of laying out the land and giving me some insight into what I can expect. It also touched upon a lot of issues that I think every medical student thinks about: maintaining relationships, specialties to choose, lifestyle choices, gender roles, etc. Definitely a must read for those entering medicine or interested in medicine!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is Match Day? It comes every year in March when medical students graduate and--depending on which hospitals they have ranked on a submitted list--find out exactly where in the country they will be spending the next 4-7 years of their lives. Brian Eule does a great job of describing how these choices determine so many important aspects of the future as he follows three young women for one year after their Match Day assignments. He should know; he was dating a young woman who wanted to become a surgeon and their story is included in this book. I really enjoyed this peek into an area that the general public literally knows nothing about. I appreciated Mr. Eule's honesty as well.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Match Day is something I will (hopefully) be seeing in a couple years, I was interested to see more into the process. The first half of this book gave some interesting info on how the match was put into place for medical graduates entering residency. The anxiety surrounding match day is something instilled in medical students from the moment they are accepted into school, so to see these women struggle with where to rank themselves and if they have chosen the right rankings was insightful and terrifying. The second half of the book was more of a drag for me. It talked about intern year for all three of them but did not have the same connection as the beginning.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to say what exactly this book is about - there are certainly broader lessons about medical education, medical practice, human relationships, and all that. But it's also something of a memoir - one of the three subjects is the author's girlfriend - and is deeply personal (sometimes too much so). I'm not going to try to deconstruct it too much, and instead just say that I enjoyed it enough to read it all in one sitting. It loses some steam toward the end, but I thought Eule was an able storyteller and that he provided a good window into the high-pressure world of being a young doctor.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author wrote this book about his then girlfriend, now wife, and 2 of their female friends as they completed medical school. The title refers to "Match Day," when graduating medical students are assigned to the hospitals where they will serve out their residencies.

The book addresses dilemmas unique to women doctors, as well as issues common to all medical first-year residents. Lots of focus on their love lives, but not much in the way of friendship and coworker interactions. Way too many pages devoted to the author's extremely elaborate marriage proposal.

[Soumya Rangarajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

like the author quotes a review of Patch Adams being "a shameless piece of sentimentality", I would describe this book the same way. I'd consider this a light fluffy beach novel for the initiated med student, or a decent intro to medicine for those who know nothing about it. The big thing that irked me is out of 250 pages, one paragraph and one line were dedicated to people who are single in med school/residency. We aren't THAT weird...

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast and interesting read for anyone interested in going through the medical school/intern & residency process, or for the significant other of someone pursuing this path. Eule gives a good firsthand explanation of three different scenarios and the pressures that come from each person's academic and personal lifestyle. I would highly recommend it for any pre-med students and their families in order to get a glimpse in the kind of life that lays ahead.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so arguably not the greatest book of all time, but still an interesting read for those of you connected to the medical profession in some way. The author is a journalist whose partner goes through the match process and starts her residency at UCLA...it will bring back memories for anyone who has deliberated over a match list for months:-)

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting subject that I knew nothing about. The writing is a little clunky at times. However, the author balances the research aspects of the book well with the emotional aspects. His subjects were brutally honest about their struggles, both personal and professional, and that made the book come to life. I enjoyed it.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read and interesting to read about med students waiting to find out where they will do their residency. It follows four students in getting their envelops, through their first year as interns. Certainly gives you a sense of how new doctors feel and the difficulties they experience in getting their degrees! I was thinking of Stu's niece, Alicia as she begins this process!

[Kyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

ongoing fascination with weird Doctor Rituals of this country continues...I like that the author focussed on three women doctors without somehow making it "hey these are the specific problems of WOMEN and balance" but I thought he had many good things to report about the deepening crisis if the status quo remains status,,,