:: to the teeth ::    thoughts on social justice, medicine, race, hope and beats

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." :: Arundhati Roy ::

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." :: Alice Walker ::
Monday, March 28, 2005  

March Matching Madness

This is SO last week, but I'm behind on posting to this blog. Recently, I posted about the residency "matching" process for myself and other 4th year medical students. And then school happened, and then I went to the AMSA national convention (more on this to come), and that's where I found out where I'm going for the next three years of my life, for family medicine training!

I'm going to Harbor-UCLA for family medicine! Yay! I've been in love with the program from the moment I found out about it -- I'll be receiving excellent clinical training in clinical medicine, working with seriously underserved populations, working at a county hospital system (that doesn't turn any patients away for lack of health insurance), working with seriously community-organizing-minded faculty and seriously inspiring and fun residents, and living in one of the most diverse communities in America. This is a place I'll be inspired by visionary people every day. The leadership of the program see the workings of health in a broad sense, and see family physicians naturally fitting into a new paradigm of dealing with health and the improvement of health -- a "thinking outside of the box" kinda paradigm. I'm sure i'll write so much more about this as I transition to the west coast and start my residency. It's coming up -- I graduate on the 25th of May and start residency in mid-June. Yikes! Anybody have housing tips for LA? Anyone have culture tips on LA? Good clubs? Any clubs want a drumnbass/hiphop dj? jk...

The only thing that's going to be a downer for me is that my parents won't be around, as they're in New Jersey. I'm hoping i'll see them relatively often, and I can't yet imagine what life's going to be like without them close by.

Ah, I forgot to mention -- my good friend Shipra (who goes to medical school with me) will be joining me at Harbor-UCLA for family medicine. She has a previous career in environmental justice organizing and keeps me on my toes in regards to walking the walk that I may otherwise just talk. I'm SO excited to be spending the next 3 years training with her, and hanging out with her and her awesome husband. AND... my good friend Casey Kirkhart, this year's Jack Rutledge Fellow for Universal Health Care and Eliminating Health Disparities at AMSA (the job I had last year) will ALSO be joining me at the program! Not only is HE kickass, but his wife April is so much fun and is a community organizer/social worker/yoga teacher! I'm doing the anju dance...

posted by Unknown | 3/28/2005 07:57:00 PM | |


Comments:

Congratulations! I was wondering when you were going to post about your residency!

I attended UCLA for undergrad and can give you some info about the area... but I think most residents live in Santa Monica, Palms, Manhattan Beach, or Culver City. Housing is expensive there... if you're going to rent, check Craigslist, the Daily Bruin classifieds (I'm biased), or the LA Times.

Los Angeles is an amazing place. I hope your residency experience will be faboo.

# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 3/30/2005 7:23 AM  

I have plenty of tips :)
Call or email me if you need info.

# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 3/30/2005 9:49 PM  

Maria -- thanks for your congrats, I'm hoping residency and LA will be faboo too (love that word faboo)! I hope I may connect as well with my future patients as you do with yours, and have as many wonderful insightful experiences to share with others.

Abhi -- rock on, i'll be contacting you pronto. It'll be good to finally meet up too.

Saurav -- yay for smart docs! Thanks for your comments, i'm lovin' reading your blog, it makes me smarter and stuff :>

# posted by Blogger Unknown : 4/05/2005 7:39 PM  

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