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Pilar and Shane Rainey

Confetti, hugs and big smiles filled the hall Friday as more than 200 fledgling physicians learned where they’ll serve residencies after graduating this spring from Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine.

They’re headed for destinations from Michigan to Galveston, Rhode Island to Fresno, in specialties from anesthesiology to vascular surgery. Dozens will stay in Texas, helping alleviate the state’s physician shortage.

The medical students graduate in May and begin residencies this summer. Every year TCOM, the founding school of UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, sends a large proportion of its graduates into primary care.

On Friday, mock champagne and bittersweet tears flowed.

Lauren and Will Griffin

“I’ll miss the family feeling of support here at the Health Science Center,” said Pilar Rainey. “TCOM produces exceptional quality, but it doesn’t have an elitist attitude.” She and her husband, Shane Rainey, got good news. They’ve matched to their first choice, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill. She’ll train in obstetrics, he in pediatrics.

Married in late September, the Raineys spent months planning, debating and compromising between their separate preferences so they could match in the same city.

Among those staying in Texas is Will Griffin. He’s taking a family practice residency in Bryan. It’s a homecoming for him and his wife, Lauren Griffin, a UNTHSC staff member, because both earned undergrad degrees at Texas A&M. Attending the Match Day party with them was their 2 ½-week-old daughter, Elizabeth, “A&M Class of 2037!” her dad said.

And with any luck, another TCOM grad after that.

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