Jeffry Nahmias, MD, Talks Setbacks & Success

As the UC Irvine School of Medicine prepares to welcome its newest cohort of medical students, trauma surgeon and Chief of UC Irvine’s Division of Trauma, Burns & Surgical Critical Care, Jeffry Nahmias, MD, MHPE, shares some advice on how to deal with setbacks.

“No one event in your life defines you, whether it’s not passing a test, not receiving a grant, or ‘fill in the blank,’” says Nahmias, who also serves as medical director of the surgical intensive care unit at UCI Health – Orange. “Just use it as fuel to continue to make yourself better.”

Nahmias learned this lesson the hard way, when he failed to match into residency after graduating from medical school in 2007 — five years before the launch of the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP). “At that time, it was just called the ‘scramble’,” says Nahmias, referring to the process of picking up the phone and personally calling as many residency programs as possible.

He didn’t match into his planned field of orthopedics, but he secured a preliminary residency in general surgery. “That’s where I fell in love with trauma surgery, and I’m very thankful in the end for the path it gave me.”

The Path to Success

“Most of the people who go to medical school have been extremely successful during their lives, so some might not have experienced that first setback yet,” says Nahmias, explaining why he highlights how failure can sometimes fuel success. “Some would call that having a chip on your shoulder,” he says. “I view it more as having something that drives you to continue to improve.”

For Nahmias, who had wanted to go into medicine since childhood, his initial failure to match was devastating.

“My father is a psychiatrist, and I saw the connection he had with his patients, and how thankful people were when they received great care,” he says. “That drove me toward medicine at a fairly young age.”

Originally, Nahmias wanted to be an interventional cardiologist, but in medical school, he realized he had more of an affinity with orthopedics and trauma. Then came the angst of not matching.

“I just tried to tell myself to control the things that I can control,” he says. “And then I truly believed that if I continued to put in the effort, the rest would work itself out.”

Almost 20 years later, it has all worked out.

In 2023, Nahmias received the Marianne Cinat, MD Memorial Award, recognizing his compassion and care in treating trauma victims and supporting their loved ones. The award honors a single Orange County physician who goes “above and beyond” the call of duty.

Nahmias credits the environment at UC Irvine.

“I love that Chad Lefteris, UCI Health CEO, says, ‘We want to be the friendliest academic medical center in the country,’” says Nahmias. “There are a lot of great places to clinically receive care, but it’s not always as friendly, so creating an atmosphere that not only helps patients medically but also heals them emotionally is really important.”

Nahmias has also excelled in providing preventative care, again thanks to UC Irvine outreach.

“For us in trauma, we do a lot of injury prevention work outside of the hospital through community partnerships,” he says.

For example, in early June, Nahmias helped lead a pediatric simulation for the Orange County trauma system.

“We went to Huntington Beach and simulated an injured child on the shore break, who sustained a spinal cord injury, and we had the lifeguards and people from the fire department transition the child to the only Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center in our county: UC Irvine,” he says. “It’s a great way for us to offer drills that help us provide better care as an entire trauma system.”

Nahmias also regularly participates in UCI Health’s annual Gun Violence Awareness Day and provides hands-on trauma and critical care training to the U.S. Navy through the UCI Health Military-Civilian Partnership.

“Providing healthcare is a huge job, but we go above and beyond,” says Nahmias. “We strive to expand how we care for and support our community.”

Nahmias, vice chair of research for the Department of Surgery, also leads numerous national research studies on trauma and has been a previous chair of the multicenter trials committees for the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the Pacific Coast Surgical Association (PCSA).

At the PCSA Annual Meeting in Hawaii in February 2025, he presented his investigator-initiated randomized controlled trial on alleviating pain for patients with multiple rib fractures (the findings were also published in the top-ranked JAMA Surgery).

Drawn to Education & Mentorship

In addition to providing exceptional clinical care, Nahmias has also twice received UC Irvine’s Golden Scalpel teaching award for the Department of Surgery, an honor given to only one faculty member each year. And, on September 10, 2026, he will be formally inducted as a full member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators (MAMSE).

“One of the things that I enjoy most about my job is education; it reinvigorates me,” he says. “Watching a medical student see the inside of a human body for the first time or helping a resident perform their first surgical procedure is truly amazing.”

He also facilitates mentorship programs, working extensively with the Medical Student Research Program (MSRP), and he has received the School of Medicine’s Innovation in Mentoring Award.

“I’ve been lucky — I’ve had great mentors,” he says, noting that he’s motivated by the idea that “a good mentor gets you to where you need to be, while a great mentor gets you to where you want to be.”

Nahmias looks forward to welcoming and supporting the incoming class of medical students, who will participate in the White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 7, 2026. His advice to them is to keep an open mind.

“Many people think they know what they want to go into,” he says, recalling his own mindset when entering medical school, “but trust yourself as you start to learn what you really enjoy day in and day out. Find something that ignites your passion.”

And, of course, he reminds students not to succumb to setbacks.

“This advice is near and dear to me,” he says. In fact, he shares a post of encouragement each year around match day.

“Stay strong, follow your heart, and believe in yourself,” he posted on X in March 2026. “You got this.”

— Shani Murray