What is call like?

Call at Olive View is every fourth night with two teams taking call. Each team consists of one resident, two interns and a medical student. Interns cap at five patients/call. Days off are scheduled with four days off per ward month. ICU call at Olive View is every fourth night, with four days off per month. The UCLA-Olive View program adheres to the duty hour limits regarding work hours. Interns are not permitted to work more than 16 hours in a row, and residents no more than 28 hours. A unique feature of our program is our nurse practitioners who round with the on-call and post-call teams to assist with discharges and system-based issues.

What are the call rooms like?

Thanks to the efforts of members of our housestaff and faculty, the call rooms have undergone a major redesign. Each intern and resident who is in the hospital overnight has their own private room, which includes a computer, desk, alarm clock and phone. Careful attention has been made to aesthetics. The most popular addition to all the call rooms has been the memory foam mattresses. They are very easy to get used to.

Is food provided on call?

Each intern/resident gets a meal allowance daily to use for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which is available 365 days a year. Our cafeteria is known as one of the better hospital cafeterias in Los Angeles (check out our "breakfast burrito").

What types of patients are there?

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is a County hospital, and patients tend to come from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Many patients are indigent and uninsured, and present with acute, undiagnosed illnesses. Housestaff see common presentations of unusual diseases as well as unusual presentations of common diseases.

How much continuity of care is provided for the patients?

Continuity of care is very important to our program. Interns and residents have continuity clinics at either the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center or the Mid-Valley Comprehensive Care clinic, a full service ambulatory care center.

Are translators available at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center?

About half of our patients are Spanish-speakers but we also have patients from many other countries throughout the world. Many patients bring in translators and many staff members speak more than one language. Video and speakerphone based live translation services are available (pictured) which literally provide our clinicians with instantaneous human translation in over 50 languages.

What is the difference between the preliminary and categorical interns’ schedules?

There is little distinction between one-year and three-year residents when making the schedule. The schedules are virtually identical, since our goal is to provide the best training possible, regardless of future plans. The main difference is that preliminary interns do not have a mandatory continuity clinic. It is expected that any intern who completes our preliminary training program would be competent to continue on in internal medicine.

Do I have to do a Sub-internship to get a spot in your program?

We do not require that applicants do a sub-internship. However, it is encouraged because it allows you to get to know the program. Similarly, it allows us to get to know you, which may put you in a higher match position than a similarly qualified applicant.

How much time would I spend at sites other than Olive View-UCLA Medical Center?

As an intern, you will spend a month of wards and a month of CCU/MICU at Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center. As a resident, you will also spend one month of CCU at UCLA, and one month of inpatient Geriatrics at UCLA-Santa Monica Hospital. Additional rotations and electives at UCLA and other sites are available.

Where do residents go when they finish the program?

Roughly two thirds of our residents choose a subspecialty as a future career, and match in top competitive fellowship programs. Most residents choose Southern California programs, while others choose fellowships in other areas of the country. For residents who choose general internal medicine as a career, we have seen a significant trend toward hospital medicine recently. For details of our graduates, please refer to Where do our housestaff go after graduation?

Can I do research and is it required?

Residents are encouraged to do research in any field of their choice and are given the time to do so. No resident is required to do a bench research elective. However, it is required that housestaff in the categorical tracks participate in some creative or scholarly activity while in training. Please see the "Research & Academics" section on this website.

How much responsibility are residents allowed?

We have a system that allows a gradual increase in the responsibility each individual has for his or her patients’ care. Interns are closely supervised by the residents, but are encouraged to actively make decisions about the care of patients. In the second year, residents make decisions about patient care with the assistance of the attending physician. By the third year, residents are expected to be able to make appropriate choices, using the attending as a consultant. Obviously, this is an overly simplistic description of the maturation process, as all residents differ in their capabilities and comfort level in making independent decisions. The significant autonomy that residents enjoy at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is well balanced with active attending supervision; the attending physician is still ultimately responsible for all decisions and takes an active role in patient care. Attendings are available 24/7.

What are the attendings like?

All attending physicians hold faculty appointments at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The faculty members are divided into two tracks. One is the traditional research oriented academic career, where the faculty members devote a good proportion of their time to basic science or clinical research. Many of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center faculty are nationally known in their area ofexpertise. The second category is the clinician-educator track, which encompasses a large majority of our faculty. Under this plan, faculty members are promoted based on their teaching abilities and creative activities. Many have gained local and national recognition for their creativity related to innovations in medical education and health services research. Having both types of faculty give the program an excellent balance between research and up-to-date clinical teaching in the specialties and in general medicine. The attendings at Olive View-UCLA are known for their enthusiasm for teaching. They have great comradery with the medical students and housestaff and are known to host social events at their homes and even play weekly basketball at our own on-site basketball court.

What do the housestaff think of the program?

The housestaff are active participants in all the decisions regarding the program, and its goals and guidelines generally reflect the residents’ needs. It would be easy to say that they are satisfied with the program. However, all programs have both their strengths and weaknesses. We strongly believe in our program and suggest that you ask the housestaff how they feel about it when you visit.

Do you have any specific requirements to be considered for an interview?

No. We only ask that you apply through ERAS and that you have at least three letters of recommendation in your file prior to being considered. There are no minimum USMLE step 1 or 2 requirements. However, the UCLA-Olive View program recruits high caliber applicants.