Creighton medical graduates learn where they’ll complete their residencies

Mar 15, 2024
3 min Read
Tara Bantam
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Match Day – when medical students find out where they will spend their residencies and whether they have been matched to their specialty of choice – took place Friday, March 15, on Creighton’s Omaha and Phoenix campuses. Match Day occurs simultaneously at medical schools across the country. This year, 100% of Creighton students matched into a residency with an impressive 95% matching into their number one specialty of choice. 

A doctor’s journey starts with four years of medical school and then pivots to three to seven years of residency depending on their specialty, making Match Day a key event for students.  

At Creighton, 109 students matched in Omaha, and 58 matched in Phoenix.   

“Any medical school would prepare me to be a physician, but only as a Bluejay can I care for the whole person, train as a woman for and with others and practice patient-centered care as an empathetic and compassionate medical professional,” says Julia Griffin, fourth-year medical student on the Omaha campus going into dermatology. “Creighton's experiential learning and community engagement opportunities have prepared me to be a culturally competent physician to elevate the level of medical care that people receive in Nebraska and in my global community.”

Griffin hopes to use her expertise to help underserved local and global populations. 

Fourth-year Phoenix student Youssef Challita, who is pursuing a career in inpatient adult psychiatry, concurs: “Creighton prepared me to be a physician who focuses on the whole person. Creighton taught me to consider things like life at home, access to medications and how other barriers to care can create context and empathy for the patients we serve.”  

He calls a Creighton education “well-rounded,” adding, “I feel very prepared to enter residency not only as a knowledgeable resident but also as a good co-worker and active member of my community.” 

Creighton doctors possess excellent clinical skills, empathy for others, cultural understanding and a commitment to service, and Creighton faculty work closely with and mentor fourth-year medical students to prepare them for a successful match. The result is a high demand for Creighton-educated physicians in residency programs around the country.   

“Any medical school would prepare me to be a physician, but only as a Bluejay can I care for the whole person, train as a woman for and with others, and practice patient-centered care as an empathetic and compassionate medical professional.”
— Julia Griffin, MD

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 the 164 students matching: 

  • 95% matched into their No. 1 specialty of choice  

  • 100% were placed into residencies or fellowship programs 

  • Students matched into 19 different specialty areas 

  • 63 (38%) students matched into the primary care specialties of internal medicine (31), pediatrics (19), family medicine (9) and medicine-pediatrics (4) 

  • The four most popular specialties were internal medicine (31), pediatrics (19), obstetrics and gynecology (16) and general surgery (15) 

  • In order of popularity, the other specialties were diagnostic radiology (12), emergency medicine (12), anesthesiology (10), family medicine (9), psychiatry (9), orthopedic surgery (5), medicine and pediatrics (4), neurology (4), urology (4), otolaryngology (2), physical medicine & rehabilitation (2), plastic surgery (2), neurological surgery (2), ophthalmology (2), transitional year (2) and dermatology (1) with additional students pursuing research fellowships 

  • Students matched into residencies in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Among other locations, 22 students matched in California, 21 students matched in Nebraska, 20 students matched in Arizona, 13 students matched in Minnesota, 10 students matched in Missouri and 8 students matched in Ohio.

  • The prestigious programs with which students matched included Creighton University, Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Rush University, Cleveland Clinic, University of Michigan, Oregon Health & Sciences, UC-San Francisco, UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, UC-San Diego, Barrow Neurological Institute, Barnes-Jewish/WashU in St. Louis, NYU, Mass General Brigham, Vanderbilt University, Duke University and Stanford University, among many others. 

Creighton is proud of everything our medical students have accomplished to date and looks forward to the positive impact they will make on their programs, patients and communities as Creighton physicians in the future.

Congratulations to all our students!