by Madeline Eckenrode, PGY-2
At the beginning of the 2016 – 2017 residency recruiting season, several residents and chief residents were considering an important question: how do we show prospective residents just how awesome Birmingham is? Especially in the last five to ten years, as Birmingham has entered into a Renaissance period of revitalization, there were so many things we wanted to communicate about the city we lived in. In post-interview surveys from prior recruiting years, applicants had noted that Birmingham was a downside to being at UAB. The perception was that there wasn’t very much to do in Birmingham, and its historical legacy was also something that gave some people pause. Unfortunately, this was a barrier that we were going to have to try to overcome.
Hanging out at Good People
One innovation introduced this year was a residency dinner hosted at Good People Brewing Company. Good People, founded in 2008, has a national reputation for producing craft beer, with its beers on offer at restaurants and bars throughout the Birmingham area and beyond. Each weeknight, a different food truck parks at Good People. The trucks serve cuisines ranging from Mexican food to hot chicken to pitas to pizza. The format of the informal dinner was that every applicant and resident attendee at the dinner was given a wristband and drink tickets – enabling them to delight in the food truck offerings as well as the beer.
This casual indoor-outdoor setting (the brewery has wonderful porch space and is located across the street from the beautiful Birmingham Barons ballpark and adjacent to Railroad Park), highlighted a lot of the wonderful attractions that are so close to UAB. Although post-interview season surveys have yet to be evaluated, applicants gave verbal feedback about how much they enjoyed the laid-back vibe, which enabled good conversation. Everyone remembers being stuck beside someone they really didn’t want to talk to at a residency interview dinner, and this format really helped make that a thing of the past!
Another addition to the recruitment season this year was a graphic map given to applicants of area highlights. The map featured some of the residents’ favorite places in a variety of locations, and it was designed to encourage people to explore Birmingham. Railroad Park (Midtown), Continental Bakery (Mountain Brook), Steel City Pops (Homewood), Avondale Brewery, and Octane Coffee (Homewood) were all featured on the map. Along with the map, they were given coupons to use (one for Steel City Pops, the other for Octane Coffee).
By the end of the interview season, hundreds of applicants from all over the country had come to UAB. (see map below) Match Day was March 14, and we were pleased to see that we had matched a diverse group of soon-to-be interns from all over the country. As in prior years, many of these residents were from the Southeast, but the mid-Atlantic and Midwest were also well-represented. We hope that our new PGY-1s will find a lot of things to love not only about UAB, but about Birmingham, as well.
