How would you describe the culture of your residency?
We aim to cultivate a diverse community of doctors who improve the health of people though humanistic care, scientific inquiry, and an abiding commitment to excellence. Every year, we ask our interns what drew them to ours. Many talk about the clinical diversity, the research opportunities, or career development. Some love the urban-outdoor mix. Above all, year after year, our trainees tell us they were drawn to our culture. Members of our community come from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, but they are bound by the shared ideals of humanism, integrity, humility, curiosity, humor, and tenacity. This is so central to who we are, and it sets the tone for all that we do.
How has your program supported resident wellness?
We promote and protect the wellness of our trainees by optimizing the core values of physical, mental, professional, emotional and social well-being. We do this by leveraging existing infrastructure to remove barriers to obtaining medical and psychological care despite a busy resident schedule. We host regular firm-based community building activities including social mixers, fun outdoor activities and resident initiated fun. We are also very strategic about creating space to debrief difficult cases, in addition to allowing for deeper reflection by way of our small group narrative medicine curriculum. Lastly, we use our full residency retreats to strengthen community and build professional identity....and, of course, have fun!
How has your program supported diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) either at your institution or in the surrounding community?
Our residency has a deep commitment to DEI and our efforts continue to expand. Our IM Resident Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (IM REDI) is a resident led, and faculty supported, group that is active in building diverse and inclusive learning environments. Along with dedicated faculty and our EDI Chief Resident, our residents are actively involved in curricular enhancement, medical student pathway mentoring, recruitment and professional development. EDI is part of our programs strategic plan and is also supported by our Department of Medicine Office of EDI and Chair of Medicine, Dr. Dale Abel.
What are unique features of your program that you would like to highlight?
While we are considered a large training program, we employee several strategies to ensure that our trainees have opportunities to build supportive communities within the greater program. Our 4+1 schedule (and 4+2 for our primary care track) divides our trainees into 5 firms that all rotate onto clinic weeks together which allows for frequent touchpoints, and regular golden weekends. Our four pathways (medical education, global health, health systems management and health equity) allow for residents with similar interests to learn together at monthly didactics. Visit our website to learn more: https://www.uclahealth.org/im-residency/
Is there any advice that you would like to share with the LMSA community?
There is the perfect program out there for you. During the application and interview process you may question if you will find the right fit, but you definitely will. You will end up exactly where you are supposed to be and you will look back at the end of residency and say, "I'm so glad I chose this program". That is the magic of the match!
Contact:
Email: cowaters@mednet.ucla.edu
Name: Bear Waters