Most FSU College of Medicine students to remain in Florida for residency training

Of the 57 students in the FSU College of Medicine Class of 2008, 33 (58%) will remain in Florida for their graduate medical education. This represents the largest percentage of any graduating class in the college to secure residency positions in the state.

J. Ocie Harris, M.D.

Thirty-eight of the 57 graduating students (67%), are entering residency in primary care specialties, including family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology. Other students matched in anesthesiology, dermatology, emergency medicine, orthopedic surgery, pathology, plastic surgery and psychiatry.

Twelve percent of the students (seven total) will be at the Family Medicine Residency program at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

On average, about 40 percent of students graduating from allopathic medical schools in Florida remain in the state for residency training, due in part to a limited number of available residency positions in state.

Of those matching outside of Florida, students matched in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C.

"This is great news for the state of Florida with an extraordinarily high number—58 percent—of our students able to remain here at a time when there simply aren't enough residency positions in the state to go around," said College of Medicine Dean J. Ocie Harris, M.D. "Overall, seeing that every one of our students had a successful match, and the quality of the programs they matched with, is a very strong indication of the first-rate medical education they are receiving here at Florida State."

The residency match, conducted annually by the National Resident Matching Program, is the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals. Graduating medical students across the country receive their match information at the same time on the same day.

By Doug Carlson