Match Week is here for the nation’s medical students participating in the 2022 Main Residency Match organized by the National Resident Matching Program, culminating with Match Day on March 18.

At the first in-person Match Day celebration since 2019, Wayne State University School of Medicine students from the Class of 2022 will gather at MotorCity Casino in Detroit beginning at 10 a.m. to celebrate their accomplishments in a program that includes award announcements, remarks from faculty and student leadership, mock awards, an exciting Match statistics presentation, a map of matched locations, and of course, the countdown clock.

Then, at noon, students will open an envelope or email that contains their post-graduation residency assignment for the next three to seven years, depending on their medical specialty.

For those who can’t attend in person, the Match Day celebration will synchronously stream at wayne.edu/live.

Throughout this week, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to share congratulatory messages, photos and videos leading up to, and on, March 18, use the hashtags #WayneMatch2022 and #Match2022 for social media posts.

To share their success, applicants may also choose from several WarriorMD-themed Giphys and other social media elements to use on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Alumni and faculty can participate by sharing photos and stories from their own Match Day using #MatchThrowback.

The Match Day event follows the protocol of the NRMP, a private non-profit corporation established in 1952 to provide a uniform date of appointment to graduate medical education positions in the United States.

From mid-January through late February, applicants and program directors rank each other in order of preference and submit preference lists to NRMP, which processes them using a computerized mathematical algorithm to match applicants with programs. Last year, 42,508 applicants applied for 35,194 available residency positions.

Several members of the Class of 2022 who participated in early matches for post-graduation residency programs in the specialties of Urology, Ophthalmology and the Military Match already know the next step in their medical journey.

New this year, the School of Medicine’s first Clinicians Ceremony for the Class of 2024 will also take place March 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. at MotorCity Soundboard Auditorium.

The ceremony will celebrate the students shortly before they embark on a pivotal segment of their medical education journey: the beginning of core clinical clerkships. During clerkships, students engage in full direct patient care alongside doctors, residents and other members of the health care team to learn and gain experience in primary care and medical specialties. The ceremony is coordinated with the school’s Gold Humanism Honors Society chapter, underscoring the challenges and imperatives to providing compassionate, collaborative and scientifically excellent care to all patients.

​​During the ceremony, clerkship directors will present their incoming students with a symbolic gift of a stethoscope, reinforcing the sacredness of the doctor-patient relationship through physician connectedness to the heartbeat of the patient. They also will receive pins to wear on their white coats as a constant reminder of their duty to their patients and their profession. The ceremony will conclude with the dean of Medical Education leading the class in the Clinician Pledge of Ethics.