Do the residents and attending a get along well?
Are people generally happy?
What opportunities are there for those interested in Heme/onc?
Overall, most definitely!! I will say that like any place, not everyone will get along with everyone - there will be differences in personality, workflow preferences, attitudes etc. But all in all, I‘ve only been impressed by how cordial everyone is to each other here! Maybe it’s a West Coast thing, but as someone coming from the East it was a pleasant surprise. Attendings are down to earth and relatable, and the PD/APDs especially are super kind. Even highflying subspecialists are sweet, which was a big eye opener for me since they tended to be a bit more abrasive at my medical school. Anytime we were on call, it was almost guaranteed that attendings would be buying dinner and/or treating us to something nice - Not that that’s necessary, but definitely a sweet gesture from them and a way for them to show they care and appreciate the residents. And of course the residents themselves are super, super nice - I love my class!
I think most of us are really really happy to be at UCLA - again, can’t speak for everyone, but it’s just the vibe I have from the residents I’ve hung out with. We work hard for sure, especially any rotation at Reagan! But there’s plenty of opportunities to play hard too and the residents really try to make the most of them - COVID’s been making it a bit harder but we try!! It helps that we’re in SoCal with so, so, so many things to do - I’m always at the beach on my days off, and we have a ton of hiking groups, sports groups etc. Residents also tend to live near each other (we have a big group of interns who all happen to live in the same building), so there’s always impromptu hangouts. And it’s been a super supportive community - everyone looks out for one another, from something as cute as an ice cream/coffee run for the team, or through offers for coverage etc. It’s definitely a family, and it’s a tone that the PD/APDs work hard to set.
I’m not personally too familiar with the heme/onc department, but I’ve definitely heard amazing things about them through the grapevine and my solid onc rotation. There’re plenty of huge names here - eg Dennis Slamon, the chair of the department, invented Herceptin! And Edward Garon was my attending on the SO service, and he was one of the key figures in the pembro trials for NSCLC. He was so, so relatable and loves teaching housestaff/students (we had daily informal lectures/conversations from/with him on any onc topics we wanted to know about), which I would say is the attitude across the institution as a whole. So I’d say that anyone coming to UCLA will not only get to work with world famous people (cardiology also has some big names, like Gregg Fonarow, the interim chair, who’s on almost every hard-hitting paper in the field), but also have the chance to get to know them as people/mentors, since they all really embrace that part of their job descriptions.
