54 fourth year medical students waited on sutures and scalpels this morning.

Here at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, as well as others medical schools across the country, students waited to see which residency they "matched."

Would it be a an orthopedic residency in Ohio? Or Neurology in Nebraska, or Pediatrics right here in Reno?

At 9:00AM screams, yells, and congratulations came from the Pennington Building.

The news was greeted with joy, excitement, and apprehension.

The theme this year was The Olympics, with the fourth year medical students finding their gold medal and turning it over to find out their matched residency.

“Emergency Medicine UC Davis Med Center” said Brandon Crum. It was his #1 Choice.

“I was a little surprised,” said Crum, “it’s a very anxiety provoking event, so it's a good time, I was surprised.”

“This is my first choice out of 10,” said Erica Low who was placed in an OBGYN Program in Arizona

“It was the best choice for me. It combines medicine and surgery,” said Crum.

A total of 54 students with the medical school matched with residency programs across the country. 35% of the students are going into primary care. Here in Nevada and nationwide there is a shortage of such physicians.

“Today is about as big a day as you can get in medical school,” said Mick Cirac, who will be entering an Anesthesiology program in Wisconsin.

Jayleen Chen will be staying in Nevada for a psychiatry residency.

“Just love working with kids would like for them to have a future they were always capable of achieving,” said Chen.

None of the students could tell us what their lives will be like in the next four or more years. We can predict what will happen if they went to medical school here in Nevada and receive a residency here, there's an 80% chance they will stay in Nevada and practice here.

Nevada ranks 45th in the country for the number of physicians practicing here. In 2008 there were 194 doctors per 100,000 people. The national average is 254.