A Glance at a Year in GME

For everyone at UMMC, the academic year is now well underway, and this is never more apparent than in the Office of Graduate Medical Education (GME).  Beginning July 1 and ending June 30 each cycle across the country, the academic year for GME is a very specific and defined space.  What is not so defined is when management of this oftentimes tight space begins, and when it ends.  When is “too early” deemed impractical?  And when is it just too late to hope?  For GME program directors, program administrators, and chief residents, alike, these questions never cease.  When is it too early to generate the schedules for rotations?  For didactics?  For interview days? When is the fairest “last day” to take schedule requests?  Are the semi-annual reviews six months apart?  Does the program review meeting leave enough time for action items to be realized?  The clock is always ticking.  Fortunately, here in the UMMC-GME Office, what we have to support us is experience – experience of our office personnel, of program directors, administrators, and of our residents and fellows.  And, so far, during this 2025-2026 academic year, we have welcomed 211 new employees to the job profile of “House Officer”, also known as our residents and fellows – and they come all at once.  There is no “trickle.”  There is only “drinking from a fire hose.”  A critical-but-sometimes-overlooked nuance of this resident and fellow population is that they are not “students.”  They are “employed learners.”  Yes, they are learning and training with full supervision of attending physicians and staff forming their education.  Their medical licenses are “temporary” and “restricted.” They have to log their hours, hit their procedures, and meet their milestones.  They work, along with their programs to meet learning requirements.  However, they must also satisfy all employment requirements of full-time employees here at UMMC.  Once they snag a spot with one of our 68 accredited programs, their pre-employment begins.  They have to apply for the job, get fingerprinted, clear a background check, provide health verifications, complete tax forms, take their badge photo– all while navigating medical licensing, GME on-boarding, and program requests.  Nonetheless, with the help of our colleagues in Human Resources, the job application went “live” in March, and job applications came in with a roar in thereafter.  We in the GME Office processed all 211 applications and plugged in all new-to-UMMC residents (172) and fellows (39) to the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure and their programs.  Simultaneously, we also managed both the exiting/off-boarding process for approximately 200 house officers completing training, as well as managing the advancement of approximately 500 other house officers.  These figures do not consider the continual management of the approximately 60 visiting residents and fellows from around Mississippi and the country.  And this seasonal balancing act arrives all while the programs are running didactics, overseeing evaluations, planning events, paying invoices, ordering white coats, submitting work orders, managing badge access, gearing up for the next academic year, among other duties.  If all goes well, at the stroke of midnight on July 1, all respective residents and fellows will be at the right place at the right time with the right access at the right salary.  By all accounts, the GME Office launched this 2025-2026 academic year with more proficiency than ever before – which is a good thing: recruitment for July 1 of the 2026-2027 is already here.  Residency applications for NRMP’s Main Residency Match are submitted.  Programs are reviewing them and scheduling interview days.  New Residents are scheduling their Step 3 exams.  Others are scheduling job and fellowship interviews.  Programs are finalizing Residency Fair plans for October.  Faculty are scheduling semi-annual evaluations.  Yes, the busyness of the UMMC-GME academic year is one that requires grit, focus, resilience, and the humility to laugh at the unexpected and provide grace to the unprepared.  The structure provided by the academic year encourages stakeholders of GME to hope for future opportunity and to embrace all challenges to support the employed learnership of UMMC’s Residents and Fellows through the Office of Graduate Medical Education.