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Efforts Underway to Recruit Inaugural Class of Residents
Recruiting the first class of Internal Medicine residents at Baptist Memorial Hospital – North Mississippi will follow a slightly different course from most established programs due to the pending Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation.
While BMH-NM submitted a new program application to the ACGME in May 2020 and the organization completed a site review in September 2020, there is still a waiting period to receive the final accreditation decision from the ACGME Review Committee. The Baptist North Mississippi program approval is included on the committee’s agenda during their meeting in late January 2021. With the approval of a new program comes the issuance of an identification number, a requirement to be included in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) listing. According to preliminary data from the ERAS website, over 48,000 residency and fellowship candidates have applied to training programs through ERAS in the 2021 season.
Receiving accreditation at the end of January would allow the Baptist North Mississippi Internal Medicine residency program to be included in the ERAS listing by February and subsequent participation in the National Resident Matching Program’s (NRMP) 2021 Main Residency Match. According to the NRMP website, each year applicants vie for over 34,000 first-year positions through the Match in a process that culminates on Match Day – March 19, 2021.
As the final phase of accreditation moves forward, Baptist North Mississippi’s Internal Medicine residency program is taking direct applications, hosting Town Hall informational sessions, and scheduling interviews through January. This allows applicants ample time to learn more about the curriculum, faculty, hospital, city, and more, just as they would with an established institution. Once they are ready to make their decisions, potential residents who feel that Baptist North Mississippi would be an ideal fit for their training should be able to include the program in their rank order list in the Match system by the March certification deadline.
To apply for the program prior to its listing in ERAS and The Match, applicants may complete the online form on the BMH-NM Internal Medicine residency website: https://bmme-imresidency-northmississippi.org/How_to_Apply. To refer a potential resident, please have them contact Emery Newsom, Program Manager, at [email protected].
While it is true that the application and interview season for this program may look different from others, there are also plenty of similarities. Potential residents are still able to receive a glimpse into the plans for daily resident life just like any other organization. Program leaders gladly share didactic schedules, rotation plans, facility highlights, details about living and working in Oxford, and the overall benefits of joining a well-established system like Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. Town Hall dates will be hosted throughout the coming months and include introductions to program faculty and leadership, information about and a tour of the hospital, question and answer sessions, and more. These are open for both virtual and limited in-person attendance. To register, please e-mail [email protected].
Genuine enthusiasm surrounds the efforts of the Baptist team to bring the first medical residents to Oxford, Mississippi. There are many program ambassadors who would love to share more details about the plans to build the future of medicine in North Mississippi.
