Resident Life
Resident Life
Residency is demanding, but life outside the hospital and clinic matters too. UCLA Family Medicine residents are a close-knit group who support one another professionally and personally. Each class develops its own community, while residents across all three years regularly connect through informal gatherings, celebrations, and activities. A resident social WhatsApp group makes it easy to organize everything from spontaneous happy hours and dinners to beach days, Korean BBQ, hikes, and other outings around Los Angeles.
One of the advantages of living in Los Angeles is the variety of neighborhoods, each with its own character, food, and community. The city’s cultural diversity is reflected across areas shaped by Korean, Persian, Japanese, Ethiopian, Thai, Mexican, Salvadoran, and many other communities. Rather than feeling like a single downtown-centered city, Los Angeles is made up of distinct neighborhoods that can feel like small cities of their own. Many residents choose to live on the Westside because of its proximity to several training sites, but others prioritize a particular neighborhood, lifestyle, or commute pattern. Because travel times in Los Angeles can vary considerably by location and direction, where you live can make a meaningful difference in your day-to-day experience.
Resident Wellness
Resident wellness is an important part of our program culture. We recognize that wellness is more than organized activities—it includes supportive relationships, opportunities to recharge, and a learning environment where residents can thrive personally as well as professionally. Residents also have access to wellness resources available through UCLA and UCLA Health.
Annual Residency Retreat – Each year, the entire residency comes together for a dedicated retreat focused on strengthening relationships across classes, reflecting on the program, sharing feedback, and working through opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, the retreat provides time to step away from the usual routine, recharge, and enjoy time together as a residency community.
Behavioral Wellness Center (BWC) – UCLA’s Behavioral Wellness Center provides confidential mental health and wellness support for medical students, residents, fellows, and other trainees. Its multidisciplinary team includes psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers who provide services designed specifically for the stresses and demands of medical training. The center is conveniently located within the UCLA Health Sciences campus.
Resident Families
Our Resident Families mentoring program creates small peer-mentoring groups that include one resident from each training year—a PGY-1, PGY-2, and PGY-3. These groups provide an additional layer of connection across classes, helping new residents navigate the transition to residency while creating opportunities for mentorship, support, and community throughout all three years of training.
These resident families also create a built-in community for exploring Los Angeles together, whether that means a beach day, a hike, trying a new restaurant, attending a local event, or discovering a new neighborhood.
Living in Los Angeles
Training in Santa Monica offers access to both the beach and everything greater Los Angeles has to offer. Residents enjoy Southern California's mild, sunny climate and can spend their time outside the hospital exploring beaches, hiking trails, museums, music, sporting events, and the many neighborhoods that make Los Angeles unique.
Los Angeles is also one of the country's great food cities. Within a short distance of our training sites, residents can find food trucks, farmers' markets, breweries, ramen shops, Korean BBQ, Middle Eastern and Chinese restaurants, vegan cuisine, neighborhood cafés, and seemingly endless brunch options.
Los Angeles also offers an extraordinary range of museums, galleries, and cultural landmarks. Residents can explore the Getty Museum and its sweeping city views, the gardens and collections at the Huntington, contemporary art at The Broad and MOCA, LACMA, the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and UCLA’s own Hammer Museum in Westwood. Beyond the major museums, the city is filled with galleries, exhibitions, and pop-up events, along with cultural landmarks such as the Watts Towers, the California African American Museum, and the Norton Simon Museum—providing endless opportunities to experience the history, creativity, and diverse communities of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is one of the world’s great cities for live music and performances, with major artists and productions coming through year-round. Residents can catch concerts at iconic venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theatre, Kia Forum, Hollywood Palladium, Crypto.com Arena, Peacock Theater, Dodger Stadium, and SoFi Stadium, as well as performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ahmanson Theatre, and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Whether your interests are pop, rock, hip-hop, classical music, theater, or something in between, there is almost always something happening somewhere in Los Angeles.
Getting Around
The UCLA Family Health Center is located just blocks from a Metro light rail station, giving residents another option for exploring Los Angeles without driving. The Metro connects Santa Monica with destinations throughout the city, including Downtown Los Angeles, and residents also have easy access to the many neighborhoods and communities of the Westside.