Residency Well-being
- Retreat - Each academic year, a residency-wide retreat is held to foster collegiality, discuss program issues, problem-solve… and relax and have fun!
- Class Days - In addition, each class year has protected time (ranging from one evening for the PGY1 class to a holiday weekend for the PGY4 class) to spend together with their class.
- Wellness Fridays - Each quarter the class representatives plan a wellness activity during the Friday Resident Lecture time for all PGY classes.
- Wellness Committee - In addition to planning wellness Fridays the wellness committee is there to think about ways to improve our well being, and always send the best birthday messages.
- Behavior Wellness Center (BWC) - Graduate education and medical training can be an inherently stressful time, therefore we have established a resource center and a team of providers to complement existing services. The new team of providers includes psychiatrists, psychologists and a social worker conveniently located in the Center for Health Sciences. Learn more >
Addressing Health Disparities
Medicine in the United States and particularly the field of obstetrics and Gynecology is fraught with significant health disparities that often fall along racial and socioeconomic lines. Working in a county hospital and at our resident run West Medical clinic near the Westwood campus allows us the opportunity to serve vulnerable patients, who oftentimes can not access care elsewhere. We work extremely hard in order to provide these patients exceptional care, regardless of their income, immigration status, sexual orientation or race.
Beyond this, we want our training environment to foster the development of physicians who are aware and equipped to address disparities in healthcare and racial injustice. Some of our initiatives to achieve this include:
- At least one resident lecture per quarter and two Grand Rounds a year focusing on racism, injustice, social determinants of health, health care disparities, reproductive justice, and implicit bias.
- Trainees are required to complete the Implicit Bias video series put out by the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
- Training for residents, nursing and staff on labor and delivery at WW and SM focusing on communication, micro and macroaggressions and treatment of BIPOC.
We understand that part of addressing health disparities relies on creating a more diverse healthcare workforce. For this reason, we are working to increase diversity within our program. Some of our strategies include:
- A holistic applicant review process.
- Purposeful recruitment of Black and Latinx medical students.
- Participation in the Road to Residency a UCLA DGSOM conference providing access and mentorship to UIM applicants from across the state. Learn more >
- “Second Look” for UIM applicants that have interviewed at our program.
- The creation of a scholarship for Sub-Internship Rotations targeted toward UIM applicants who are interested in our program, designed to address and offset the cost of an away rotation.
- Department sponsored Vice Chair of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
