From the very core of IO’s vision and mission is to endow our medical students with the skills, experience, and knowledge they will need alongside and subsequent to their undergraduate studies. Among the student training programs that IO provides, Residency Preparatory Course (RPC) is a comprehensive program that informs students of the chronological steps of the medical residency matching process, locally or internationally, which includes and is not limited to, the mandatory criteria, the preparation and application process, and the selection and interviewing. All the information that students have to search exhaustively and collect over time is available in one course. This invaluable course trains students on what they need to achieve in terms of their GPA, USMLE, PLAB or SMLE exams, Curriculum Vitae (CV), research, clinical electives, volunteering experience, etc. and is delivered by Alfaisal alumni who have gone through the rigorous process of matching successfully themselves, and have an in-depth insight about the winning tactics and pitfalls.
RPC-KSA took place on Saturday, October 5, 2019, was delivered by Dr. Dana Kalagi, a General Surgery Resident at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC). The course took place for about six hours, where the attendees were given lectures on various topics such as internship, seat availability, application criteria, SMLE score and GPA requirements, the portal for residency application and how to apply for residency itself, the SCFHS application, selection interview, apart from other important aspects of Saudi Residency.
Dr. Dana stressed on the importance of maximizing one’s internship year by involving themselves in various official volunteering and research opportunities, as it is the most crucial time for a medical aspirant. The attendees benefitted from the timeline and standards they needed to follow and learned from personal anecdotes given by Dr. Kalagi about internship and matching. She gave a short interview about the KSA matching process and the pros and cons to doing residency in one’s homeland.
Dr. Noor Aljefri and Dr. Reem Maalem were invited as panelists who joined Dr. Kalagi in a panel session, and the three alumni talked about their lives as medical residents in medicine, emergency medicine and surgery, respectively. They cleared expectations and shared valuable tips and tricks of navigating through the obstacles of work life.
Dr. Dana Kalagi was presented with a memento of gratitude by the IO Directors, Ismail and Randa, and the program was concluded with drinks and snacks.
