Billy Gravley found out the next stage of his medical training by way of an ace of spades.
The charter class of UNLV’s medical school stepped on campus in 2017 and now is weeks away from graduation, but before Gravley and 49 of his colleagues are turned loose into their profession, they have to match to residency programs for their first jobs.
“I’m a little bit superstitious so I won’t jinx myself just yet, but I will say that I would be happy with just about all the programs that are on my list — in fact, all the programs on my list,” Gravely said before the Friday Match Day ceremony on the grassy quad outside the medical school.
In a rigorous, competitive process, fourth-year medical students nationwide apply and interview with dozens of hospitals each before ranking their picks. The hospitals do the same. A computer algorithm aligns the two lists, and every March 19, medical students across the country find out their matches.
“Wait til you see where you’re going,” Dr. Marc Kahn, dean of the UNLV School of Medicine, told his students. “Most importantly, many of our top students are staying here to care for their community. For those of you that are leaving, we want you back. We have a community that needs you.”
While an Elvis Presley impersonator sang “Viva Las Vegas” and a showgirl swayed in her red feathered costume, school staffers passed out sealed decks of playing cards. Matches were on the top cards.
Dr. Neil Haycocks, vice dean for academic affairs, counted down from 10 and at precisely 9 a.m. instructed the students to open their packs. Then an ebullient class of 2021 softened yearlong pandemic-imposed physical distancing to cheer and jump into one another’s arms.
“I do not think that I have to impress upon anyone the significance of this day. It is truly historic both for the school but also for the city of Las Vegas,” Haycocks said. “In fact, I think even if today, right now, you think you realize how historic this day is, over time you will realize that it’s even deeper than that.”
The class of 2021 was battle born. In addition to carrying the weight of being the first, taking their classes in space shared with the UNLV dental school, one of their earliest exams was the day after the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting outside Mandalay Bay. Then their third and fourth years, which are heavy on hands-on clinical learning, were snarled by the coronavirus pandemic. Critically important residency interviews were conducted over Zoom.
Still, students matched with prestigious hospitals across the country: medical centers tied to Stanford, Yale, the University of Southern California and UCLA, among others. They’re entering family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, pediatrics, plastic surgery, psychiatry, anesthesiology, general and orthopedic surgery, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, radiology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Many are Nevada natives, and 18 will stay local.
Gravley is one of the homegrown. He came to UNLV after earning a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, where he was also an All-American swimmer. He had been an accomplished swimmer and runner at Centennial High School, where he took his first anatomy class.
He earned a master’s degree in biophysics and physiology from Georgetown University before deciding to be part of something new with the UNLV School of Medicine. He said the faculty here valued student opinion and allowed them to shape curriculum and culture. He’s proud to be from the inaugural class.
Pulling influence from his parents — his mother is a child psychologist and his father is an elementary school physical education teacher – he shifted his interests from neurology and neurosurgery to working with children. It crystallized when he got into a pediatrics ward.
“When I was driving home from the hospital from my pediatrics rotations, I was the happiest, and I knew that at the end of the day, when my job was done, I wanted to be happy,” he said.
His top choice was UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, a top pediatric medical center affiliated with the University of California-San Francisco. He managed to get a rotation there last October during a lull in the pandemic. He said he was wowed by faculty and potential colleagues and drawn to the diverse population of the Bay Area. It was one of the 29 post-graduate programs he applied to.
Future obstetrician-gynecologist Zarah Rosen matched with her first choice, University of Massachusetts in Worcester. A Las Vegas native who has left the valley only for her undergraduate years at UC-Berkeley and a rotation at Humboldt General Hospital in Winnemucca, she has already lost count of the number of babies she’s helped deliver.
She definitely remembers the first, though. It was a boy. He came last year, in the middle of the night at UMC.
“One of the residents said ‘Are you ready?’ and put her hands on top of mine,” Rosen said. “It was magical.”
She bubbled over recounting the moment.
Gravley was also naturally excited Friday, with a pinch of apprehension.
He opened his deck of cards.
The ace of spades was on top.
It said Children’s Hospital-Oakland.
He’ll be there in a few weeks.
“It’s an affirmation,” he said.