Match Week Leaves Doctors without Work – Can You Help?

As we continue addressing a worldwide health crisis and its many residual impacts, please consider how you might help one or more of the 7,409 unmatched U.S. and lawful permanent resident physicians who’ve graduated from medical school. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resultant healthcare workforce burnout, there are opportunities to be had with regard to currently sidelined physicians in this country.

As you make hiring decisions and discuss staffing needs with colleagues, perhaps you will see opportunities to advocate for these highly trained and qualified doctors. They attended competitive schools and earned medical degrees, yet remain unmatched.

Many of these doctors would welcome the opportunity to help in the fight to rebuild a hard-hit medical system, and their services would contribute to the reduction of workload on overburdened medical facilities across the country. Some of these doctors would welcome the opportunity to serve in medically underserved areas of the U.S. where we read of hiring challenges, increased patient morbidity and mortality, and an overall lack of resources.

One opportunity to utilize these doctors is in residency slots that may be vacant as of March 18. If you have unfilled PGY-1 positions at your hospital by the end of Match Week, you could potentially utilize local physicians who did not match, thus ensuring your programs do not run the risk of losing federal funding for those positions.

Please consider hiring qualified unmatched physicians who are in the country and ready to serve. Should you have a residency position that runs the risk of going unfilled this Match Week, please consider posting that position at www.unmatchedmd.com. The site was created by an unmatched doctor to help physicians and program directors find and post opportunities. Using the site is free, and there are no membership requirements.

The medical system continues to lead us through this health crisis, but it is fraught with multifaceted challenges the likes of which many have never experienced in their lifetimes. There is a chance to stray from the norm. You have the power to choose the high quality of care that the U.S. medical profession has always stood for and help direct where it needs to go.

As we share the common goal of a quality healthcare system, we are interested too in your thoughts on how you can move American doctors off the sidelines and into residencies. We want to see all of our U.S. doctors contribute on the frontlines where they are needed most. Please help us increase the dialogue on the issue of unmatched doctors to ensure this tremendous investment is not lost.

Thank you for being a part of the decision making process that will ensure the integrity of our medical system and save the lives of the patients we all care about.

Sincerely,

Kevin Lynn
Doctors without Jobs