(Des Moines, IA) -- Today is Match Day for fourth-year medical students around the country.
Nearly 300 students at Des Moines University Medicine simultaneously found out where they will serve their medical residences when they all opened envelopes at the same time Friday morning.
Dr. Jennifer Beaty, Associate Dean of DMU Medicine says 30 of their medical students will stay here in Iowa for their residency training.
Others found out they are assigned to medical facilities elsewhere in the Midwest. Several will complete their training in states like California, Arizona and Florida..
"This is how physcians end up going into their specialties. It's through a match process and they found out today," said Beaty
The residencies take three to five years to complete, depending on the specialty.
"The goal is for students to return to Iowa after their residency training to help support the large need for rural physicians in the state," Beaty added.
The students' residencies are in a number of specialities, including family, internal, emergency and pediatric medicine.