- Joined
- Aug 1, 2005
- Messages
- 328
- Reaction score
- 2
Hey SDNers. Been ages since I was on the forums. I am at UCLA in the internal medicine primary care track. I am originally from Minnesota and went to school at University of Minnesota and matched at my first choice =). I'm a second year resident and felt I should make myself available to the forums to ask questions about the UCLA categorical and primary care internal medicine programs.
Overall:
I absolutely love it here. Not kidding. I interviewed on both coasts and it became obvious that the west coast was the best fit for me. Less formal, less structured hierarchy, and work/life balance respected.
System/Faculty:
UCLA is an amazing health care system and people on the west coast respect the name. The label of best in the west is accurate. Faculty are superb academicians and teachers. My co-residents are my best friends here and we hang out all the time. Now that I'm a resident, it is so fun to run a code and all your friends show up to help out. Our program is smaller and without prelims so we retain a smaller program feel.
Primary Care Track:
The primary care track takes all the great features of the categorical but is even better. If you ask the categoricals, you'll hear longingly how great we have it. The only major differences are our continuity clinic, yearly 4 week primary care month, and special programming we get. Our clinic is brand new (moved in few months ago) and located in Santa Monica. So we get patients from the community and not all highly complex tertiary care specialist driven patients. We have our own faculty, special events and mentorship. They are so supportive and fun. Its like a family inside a family. Every year we have a dedicated 4 weeks of primary care activities, which is a dedicated outpatient months with awesome lectures, field trips, and community outreach. Weekends are off and it is a great break from the inpatient grind.
Everyone asks me, "so if I do this track, do I have to do primary care?" The answer is no. The focus is on developing skills for you to be a superb generalist and primary care physician, yet they are supportive of whatever you want to go into. Some residents have decided to specialize and have had the same success as their categorical counterparts. I don't know what I am going into, but I know that I am going to have the training to be an amazing doctor in whatever field I choose. If you have no desire for the missions or philosophy of primary care you shouldn't do the track, but everyone else should strongly consider it.
Unique features of both tracks:
One other amazing thing is that for all of 2nd and 3rd year you will have outpatient blocks every other month. That means, weekends, normal hours, every other month! Many specialty blocks are done in the outpatient setting to see where the majority of patients are truly seen by specialists. So GI will be outpatient, and u get to see new patients there.
Final thoughts:
UCLA is where its at. On days off I surf, hike in the mountains, hit up hollywood, art walk downtown, food truck nights... Where else could you combine top caliber training and such a wonderful lifestyle? You'll have infinite opportunities once your done with training.
Let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully see you on the interview days here.
Justin
Overall:
I absolutely love it here. Not kidding. I interviewed on both coasts and it became obvious that the west coast was the best fit for me. Less formal, less structured hierarchy, and work/life balance respected.
System/Faculty:
UCLA is an amazing health care system and people on the west coast respect the name. The label of best in the west is accurate. Faculty are superb academicians and teachers. My co-residents are my best friends here and we hang out all the time. Now that I'm a resident, it is so fun to run a code and all your friends show up to help out. Our program is smaller and without prelims so we retain a smaller program feel.
Primary Care Track:
The primary care track takes all the great features of the categorical but is even better. If you ask the categoricals, you'll hear longingly how great we have it. The only major differences are our continuity clinic, yearly 4 week primary care month, and special programming we get. Our clinic is brand new (moved in few months ago) and located in Santa Monica. So we get patients from the community and not all highly complex tertiary care specialist driven patients. We have our own faculty, special events and mentorship. They are so supportive and fun. Its like a family inside a family. Every year we have a dedicated 4 weeks of primary care activities, which is a dedicated outpatient months with awesome lectures, field trips, and community outreach. Weekends are off and it is a great break from the inpatient grind.
Everyone asks me, "so if I do this track, do I have to do primary care?" The answer is no. The focus is on developing skills for you to be a superb generalist and primary care physician, yet they are supportive of whatever you want to go into. Some residents have decided to specialize and have had the same success as their categorical counterparts. I don't know what I am going into, but I know that I am going to have the training to be an amazing doctor in whatever field I choose. If you have no desire for the missions or philosophy of primary care you shouldn't do the track, but everyone else should strongly consider it.
Unique features of both tracks:
One other amazing thing is that for all of 2nd and 3rd year you will have outpatient blocks every other month. That means, weekends, normal hours, every other month! Many specialty blocks are done in the outpatient setting to see where the majority of patients are truly seen by specialists. So GI will be outpatient, and u get to see new patients there.
Final thoughts:
UCLA is where its at. On days off I surf, hike in the mountains, hit up hollywood, art walk downtown, food truck nights... Where else could you combine top caliber training and such a wonderful lifestyle? You'll have infinite opportunities once your done with training.
Let me know if you have any questions. Hopefully see you on the interview days here.
Justin
