Match Day 2019: Third Year Clinical Rotations

What the heck is Match Day?

So you’ve probably heard me talk about Match Day a whole lot. Match Day is the day we “choose” our terminal clinical experiences (aka our third year rotations). And I put choose in quotations because we only have so much control over where we go. I don’t know how other PT schools do it, but ya girl is gonna tell ya how Duke does it:

Our curriculum consists of two didactic years, and one clinical year. Our clinical year is then separated into three three-month rotations/experiences. You can choose to go somewhere different for each rotation, stay at one rotation for two months/24-weeks, or stay at one rotation for the whole third year (three months/36 weeks). A few months before Match Day, we receive a list of the locations/sites our school has contracts with (where we can actually go). This list is updated up until the day of Match Day.

There are 78 students in my class, and Match Day is like a fantasy football snake draft with three rounds. If you are unfamiliar with a snake draft: Each student makes their first-round pick based on a predetermined order. When the first round is over, the student that picked last in the first round picks first in the second round—the draft snakes back on itself. The third round is a little different, because we redraw completely new numbers to “balance” things out.

To make Match Day more exciting, our class chose a “theme” for the day, and each TBL (team-based learning) team chose a theme within that theme (I really hope that makes sense). Our theme was “Holidays”, and my team chose “National Fast Food Day” as our holiday. Of course I was the Chick-Fil-A cow.

While Match Day is going on, there is music, food, games, etc. to try to reduce everyone’s stress levels. This is a pretty important day, as it determines how we will be spending a whole year improving our clinical skills. The “master list” is projected on the screens in the room, and is updated each time a student makes a pick.

How does Match Day even work?

1. You can go anywhere from California to Florida, and work in any specialty you would like (i.e. Pediatrics, Women’s Health, Sports, Cardiopulmonary, etc.). The only requirement is you must have one inpatient setting and one outpatient setting.
2. Like I said before, there are three rounds: we draw numbers for the first round, flip numbers for the second round (i.e. if you drew 1, you are now 78), and then re-draw for the third round.
3. Before we begin picking for each round, everyone’s names (all 78 of us!) are randomized and we each get a number 1-78. This is the order that we will “draw” our picks (these aren’t our official numbers, this number just determines the order we draw our official number…so much randomization).
4. Once we each get our randomized number, we each walk up to a box and randomly draw a number.
5. AND THEN THE FUN BEGINS!
6. We go through round one starting at pick 1, and end the round at pick 78. For round two, we start at pick 78 and then end at pick 1. For round three, we redraw numbers, and go from 1-78 again. And that’s it! I know this may be a little confusing, but I hope I did my best to make it easy to understand!
7. When it is your turn to pick, you go into a conference room with two faculty members and discuss your potential pick(s). If you are unsure of what to do, they are there to help you make a decision based on your personal circumstances, wants, needs, etc. You can take as long as you want, and ask as many questions as you want. The faculty members know a lot about the sites, so their recommendations are very helpful.
8. Once you make your pick, the master spreadsheet is updated and your pick is announced to the whole class as you walk back in (exciting yet nerve-wracking, I know). Everyone claps for you, which is a good feeling but can also make you feel awkward (kinda like whenever people sing you “Happy Birthday” and you don’t really know what to do haha).
9. Majority of my class got their top picks, but of course there were a few people that were upset. It is impossible to accommodate everyone’s wants and need’s, but our director of clinical education did a WONDERFUL job finding great locations and sites for us.

How did I prepare for Match Day?

We already know I’m extra, so I did a lot to prepare for Match Day. I created an Excel document and created a “sheet” for each terminal clinical experience (801, 802, and 803). I wanted to stay in NC (specifically the Triangle area to be near my family and boyfriend), so I researched every NC site to find out everything I could about them. I organized each site by setting type (inpatient, outpatient, SNF, etc.), and I also color-coordinated them by interest and specialty. This idea was suggested to me by a then second-year now third-year student, and I really liked it! It helped keep everything organized, and I wasn’t too overwhelmed.

A few days before Match Day, I then created a “Top 10+ List” to reference on actual Match Day:

So where in the world am I going?!

I couldn’t be happier with how Match Day actually went. For the first round, I drew pick 25. This made me pick 53 in the second round, and then I drew a higher number (somewhere in the 50s-60s, I can’t remember exactly what it was) for the third round. I ended up picking three sites from my “Top 10+ List”:

• Rotation 1 (801): Outpatient Women’s Health/Orthopedics – Raleigh, NC
• Rotation 2 (802): Inpatient Acute Care (Adult) – Winston-Salem, NC
• Rotation 3 (803): Inpatient Pediatrics – Durham, NC

My first pick (25) was inpatient pediatrics, and I was very surprised that it wasn’t taken by my turn. A lot of my classmates are interested in pediatrics, so I figured that this site would have been taken quickly (especially with it being one of the only inpatient sites). I was so happy that I got this for my first pick! Because I picked an inpatient site on the first round, I was free to choose whatever I wanted for the second and third rounds. My second pick (53) was outpatient women’s health/orthopedics. My first choice was an outpatient cardiopulmonary site, but unfortunately that slot was already taken by my turn. I still really wanted a women’s health rotation though, so everything ended up working out. This site ended up being perfect for me, because it is a women’s health/orthopedic split. I felt like I needed an orthopedic rotation to build my basic PT/manual skills (and because orthopedics is heavily on boards), but I didn’t want to be in outpatient orthopedics for an entire three months. I will be getting a split of both specialties, so I won’t get overwhelmed (or bored) by one. My third and final pick (somewhere in the 50s-60s) was an inpatient acute care site. I prefer inpatient to outpatient, so this was an easy pick. Most of the sites were taken from my “Top 10+ List”, so the decision wasn’t too hard. Overall, I am very satisfied with my terminal clinical experience sites, and it feels good to know where I will be for my final year of PT school! I can’t wait to take you all along on my journey!

I hope this post gave you a little bit more insight into my Match Day experience. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! I am so excited to learn and grow during my third year. Let me know down below how your program chooses clinical rotations!