Creighton medical grads learn residency destinations

Michael G. Kavan, PhD, associate dean for student affairs at the school of medicine, who oversees the match process for fourth-year medical students, reported “an excellent residency match year.”

Of those students matching:

• 92% matched into their number one specialty choice, accounting for 20 specialty areas.
• 165 Creighton students participated in matching programs this year.
• 67 students (41%) matched into the primary care specialties of internal medicine (31), pediatrics (25), family medicine (9) and medicine-pediatrics (2).
• The most popular specialties were Internal medicine (31), pediatrics (25), diagnostic radiology (16) and psychiatry (15).
• These were followed by general surgery (14), obstetrics & gynecology (13), family medicine (9), emergency medicine (7), neurology (7), pathology (4), anesthesiology (3), physical medicine and rehabilitation (3), plastic surgery (3), urology (3), medicine-pediatrics (2), ophthalmology (2), otolaryngology (2), orthopedic surgery (2), dermatology (1) and thoracic surgery (1).
• Creighton’s graduates will take their places across 30 states, including Arizona (22), California (17), Nebraska (11), Texas (11), Wisconsin (10), Illinois (10), Missouri (8), Ohio (8), Colorado (7) and Minnesota (7).
• 144 were involved in the National Resident Matching Program, six in the San Francisco Match, four in the American Urological Association Match and two in the Military Match. Some students, Kavan said, participated in more than one match. 

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Additional students, Kavan said, are pursuing research fellowships.

As every year, some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country granted residencies to Creighton graduates.

Among these are Creighton University, the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Northwestern, the Cleveland Clinic, Rush, Penn, Vanderbilt, University of Chicago, Barrow Neurological Institute, University of California-San Francisco, University of California-Los Angeles, Duke and Johns Hopkins.

Kavan offered his congratulations to students on match day.

“Our medical students on both the Omaha and Phoenix campuses did extremely well this year,” he said, “with 92% matching into their specialty of choice. Our students match into 20 different specialties across 30 states and into incredible programs including Creighton University, Mayo, Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins, to name just a few. We are very proud of their accomplishments.”

Phoenix will be well served by this year’s class, said Nicole Piemonte, PhD, holder of the Peekie Nash Carpenter Endowed Chair in Medicine at Creighton University’s Phoenix campus.

"We are so thrilled with this year’s match,” she says. “One of our desires has been to train students in Phoenix who would then like to stay in the area and serve the Phoenix community.

“This year, 22 of our Creighton students are joining training programs with our Creighton Alliance partners and nearby programs in the Phoenix area.

“While we are fortunate to have so many new Creighton residents right here in our community, we also know that wherever our students end up, they will bring the values of their Creighton education — compassion, wisdom, and a commitment to creating a more just world — with them wherever they go.”

Elizabeth Dorchuck, of Denver, was delighted to have matched into internal medicine-pediatrics at the University of Arizona-Phoenix, where she has been studying at Creighton’s 18-month-old, $100 million medical and health sciences campus.

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“I’m stoked to be staying in Phoenix,” she says. “I really like the city and think the combined internal medicine and pediatrics program here will train me very well to do whatever I want to do after residency.”

The eight-hour journey to Omaha, where she began her Creighton career as an undergraduate, proved life changing.

“I’m so glad I chose Creighton,” Dorchuck says. “I was an undergrad in Omaha and found the Jesuit values and principles of caring for the whole person and being a woman with and for others built the foundation of who I wanted to be and how I wanted to interact with the world.

“This way of thinking and engaging with people, specifically those who are underserved, was exactly how I wanted to be trained as a doctor. I knew that I wanted to go to a school that surrounded me with good people that also wanted to be of service to others.”

Katelyn Gibson, of Mascoutah, Illinois, who will embark on an internship in obstetrics and gynecology at CHI Creighton University Medical Center, said the moment was fraught with emotion when she opened her envelope, making words hard to find.

“I came to Creighton because of my passion for service and knowing that it would be the place for me to grow as a physician and person,” she says.

“I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. It’s completely surreal that after all of these years, and a lot of setbacks, that everything I’ve worked for is finally happening. I owe it all to my family, friends and Creighton who helped me grow, supported me through the hard times and celebrated me in my triumphs.”

Kristina Kunes, of San Diego, California, the first physician in her family, was thrilled to begin her career as an internist, with a view to serving vulnerable populations. She will serve her residency at Oregon Health and Sciences University.

“I remember walking out of my first global health class feeling deeply affected by the persistent health inequities that exist throughout the world,” she says. 

“When I moved to the Phoenix campus for clinical rotations, I learned about the free medical clinic at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and knew I had to get involved. About a year ago, I was so excited to become president of Creighton’s student-run free clinic there and lead our students in providing quality, accessible healthcare to members of our local community.”