March Is Not Only ‘Madness’ in Basketball
By Sandor Szabo, MD, PhD, MPH, Founding Dean, School of Medicine
March in the U.S. is regularly characterized by the ritual of ‘March madness,’ referring to predicting a series of basketball games, i.e., winners and losers. However, this month also encompasses a series of other National Days dedicated to science and medicine:
- March 15 is the famous (or infamous – depending on personal outcomes) National Match Day… On this day, a centralized administrative body announces the assignments of graduating medical students to specialty residencies based on their preferred specialties. Namely, students list their preferred specialty residencies in decreasing order, e.g., 1, 2, 3… After visiting and being interviewed at their preferred hospitals/residency programs in the preceding months of the academic year, the programs also rank the candidates in decreasing order. These preferences are submitted to the national organization that oversees these programs, and the computer-based matching results are announced on March 15, or around, to each medical school. Lucky students may match perfectly, i.e., get their first choice (e.g., internal medicine, surgery) or match at a lower level by getting into rehabilitation medicine or other less popular residencies…
- March 26 is Science Appreciation National Day. This provides an answer to the often-asked question: “The greatest gift of science is the knowledge and understanding that it has provided about the world around us” (https://brainly.in/question/54716320#:~:text=Answer%3A,about%20the%20world%20around%20us). This day asks us to remember the major discoveries in all natural sciences from astronomy to medical sciences. There were nice reminders on my PC screen:
Here are some quotes from famous scientists who were listed in response to a simple Google search of “Science Appreciation Day”:
March 30 is National Doctors’ Day:
Historically, this day refers to physicians since the celebration was initiated by an MD in 1933, but some institutions celebrate this as a recognition of all doctors, including holders of PhD, PharmD, and EdD degrees.
When I was chief of staff at the LBVAMC, we invited physician leaders and deans to our celebrations and prepared special posters every year, like these:
The topic of Doctors’ Day often creates ‘funny’ comparisons with the weeklong celebration of “National Nursing Week” that is usually held in May. Namely, physicians sometimes complain (seriously or jokingly) ‘why are doctors celebrated only for one day, while nurses for a whole week?’ My simple answer used to be: ‘this is because nurses spend more time with patients than doctors,’ and nurses end up on the top almost every year in surveys on the ‘most appreciated professions.’ Doctors are usually on 4th or 5th place.
Thus, March is not only basketball month. We, being in the training of health care professionals, should be aware of these science- and medicine-related dates in March every year.