Snapshots
We asked members of each class to write down all of their activities during a week of residency. We hope that this will give you a quick snapshot into what life is like for our residents!
PGY-1s
PGY-1 Cristian Hernandez
Education
- MD, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
- BS, Neuroscience, Yale University
Bio
Cristian grew up in Los Angeles and studied Neuroscience at Yale, where he became interested in how early life experiences shape development and psychiatric risk. Before medical school, he worked as a research associate at UCLA on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, and at the University of Chicago he contributed to research examining mental health disparities in Latino communities, including the impact of social and structural factors, as well as innovative approaches to dementia-related behavioral symptoms. These experiences shaped his commitment to understanding psychiatry through the lens of culture, identity, and lived experience. He is particularly drawn to child and adolescent psychiatry and to integrating cultural and psychoanalytic perspectives into clinical care. Cristian is thrilled to return home to Los Angeles to escape the cold Chicago winters and is especially excited to begin his residency at UCLA. Outside of medicine, he enjoys discovering new coffee spots around the city, attending concerts, and spending time watching films.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
The week starts early at 7 AM at the VA inpatient psychiatry unit, where I preround on patients and get ready for rounds at 9. After a month in emergency medicine, it feels great to be back on psychiatry service, especially on the same team as my co-intern Ella!! The VA is very different from my time at Resnick, and I appreciate the chance to see a wide range of patient populations and systems of care. The morning is spent checking in with patients, updating treatment plans, and preparing discharges. At lunch, we sit outside in the sun and catch up on our weekends. In the afternoon, I finish notes and make collateral calls. That night, I head out to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film One Battle After Another—a perfect way to end the first day of the week!
Tuesday
I’m back at 7 AM to preround and prepare for a new admission. I review the chart closely, then interview the patient with my team. Having supervision during these interviews has been one of the most useful parts of residency so far, it gives me feedback on my approach and helps me grow more confident in structuring an interview. Lunch is poke through Uber Eats (a perk through our benefits) and in the afternoon we have didactics. Today we cover dementia and how to distinguish it from delirium, as well as strategies for reading research articles more effectively. After work, I get in a workout, then stock up at Trader Joe’s before heading home!
Wednesday
I arrive around 7:30 AM and spend the morning working on a discharge. I like taking the time to go over medications with patients, talk through follow-up plans, and make sure families feel ready for the transition. At lunch we have catered Mediterranean food, which is always a highlight. The afternoon is steady until my call shift begins at 5 PM. Around 7, I get my first ED consult, go down to meet the patient, and present to my attending. My PGY-2 is very supportive, which makes the experience less stressful and more of a learning opportunity. I am out by 10 PM and head home tired but proud of how the evening went!
Thursday
Rounds start later today, so I enjoy the extra hour of rest. In the morning, I admit a new patient whose presentation challenges me to think through a wide differential. I enjoy collaborating with the team and pulling together different perspectives. In the afternoon, we have journal club and discuss a recent article on clozapine. It is always interesting to see how research connects to day-to-day clinical work. The evening is quiet, and I get home at a good time to cook dinner and relax.
Friday
The day begins at 7:30 AM with routine check-ins. There are no new admissions or discharges, so I spend extra time connecting with my patients before the weekend. Lunch is catered pizza, followed by our weekly process group where we talk about patient care and our own reactions to cases. I find these conversations grounding and a great way to close out the week. The afternoon is spent wrapping up notes and preparing sign out. That night, I meet up with a co-resident for dinner, a fun way to celebrate the end of a busy week together!
Saturday and Sunday
I have the weekend off and make the most of it. Saturday starts with some time at the beach, followed by a Magdalena Bay concert at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is one of my favorite venues in the city! On Sunday, I head over to my parents’ house for a big family barbecue and to catch up with my siblings. The weekend is the perfect balance of music, food, and family, and it always leaves me recharged and ready for the week ahead.
PGY-1 JP Nguyen
Bio
JP is proud to have grown up in Houston, Texas, where his free time was spent chasing wildflowers in the state’s many different biomes. He went to undergrad at Georgetown University where he developed a passion for medical education as the training director for the campus EMT service. At Georgetown, he majored in Biology and minored in Psychology, so it was only natural he should become a psychiatrist. He returned to Houston as a medical student at Baylor College of Medicine where he helped create the Pride Coalition, an organization that strives to build community among homeless LGBTQ+ youth. He helped create a safe space for identity exploration and equipped the youth with coping skills to address their trauma, furthering his passion for advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. As a psychiatrist, he is interested in LGBTQ+ mental health, community psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, and psychedelic-assisted therapy. After matching at UCLA, he took a car with his partner and his collection of over 100 orchids across the stark desert to sunny California. In LA, he enjoys cultivating and blooming his plant collection, starting new passions like pottery, hiking, and of course, chasing after California’s own unique wildflowers.
Follow Me for a Week
7:00 AM: I make it to the hospital and grab matcha and breakfast from ScrubJay Café. Luckily UCLA gives me $25 to spend each day on food, and I am going to make the most of it.
7:15 AM: I munch on breakfast while pre-rounding on my patients. There’s a new admission over the weekend, so I need to make sure to read up on them before going to interview them. I also check up on how all my patients have been over the weekend.
7:45 AM: Luckily, my patients who have made it through the weekend without any acute events. I praise my luck because I worry so much about my old folks. The new patient is someone coming in who wasn’t taking care of themselves because of their psychosis. I read their H&P which was well-done by the night float intern and go interview them briefly.
8:30 AM: We do team rounds together with the other R2s, nursing staff, social worker, and the attending. We each share insights and perspectives on each case, as each team member knows a different aspect of the person based on specialty. I staff my new patient with the team, and we all think about treatment for them. I come up with differential diagnoses and figure out the plan, supported by my R2s and attending.
10:00 AM: We conclude rounds and go see patients as a team. We talk with patients about how they are doing and update them with the plan. We see my patient first who as a part of his psychotic delusion believes his body isn’t functional despite negative medical work-up.
11:00 AM: After we finish seeing patients, we go finish up morning tasks.
12:00 PM: LUNCH TIME. Our cafeteria is legendary. I missed Lobster Day which comes only once a year. I will be in attendance next year, trust.
1:00 PM: Finishing up to-dos. This can be calling families and updating them, seeing how patients are doing after their morning dose of medications, following up on labs. I enjoy checking up on my patients and talking to them about things that aren’t purely medical.
4:00 PM: Luckily, my R2s got my back today. I get to leave somewhat early while they cross-cover for me. I take my scooter home, and it’s easily the best part of my day. Rolling down the hills in Westwood on an electric scooter is something everyone at UCLA must try at some point.
4:30 PM: I get home, play video games with my family virtually, catch up with my partner, and he cooks dinner while I sit and look pretty (love you Nathan).
11:00 PM: Time to sleep.
8:30 AM: One of my elderly patients is unfortunately getting stiffer as a side effect from the antipsychotics we are giving her. Although she is having relief from her mania, she also suffers from the negative side effects that elderly people can be more sensitive to.
In med school I learned that first-line for an acute dystonic reaction is an anticholinergic agent; however, my attending reminds me during rounds that elderly patients often have increased side effects to anticholinergics. After a discussion about the risks and benefits of treating, we decide to give her a shot of benadryl with close monitoring. Although I feel like I knew psychiatry well in medical school, I am reminded that things are never as easy as the textbook, and that great clinical learning can come when you are supported by attendings who come with a wealth of experience and who are at the top of their field.
11:00 AM: I check on her again after she received the benadryl shot, and she is doing much better. She has less significant stiffness and has less functional impairment.
12:00 PM: Lunch time! I eat with my fellow co-resident and bestie Jules outside. They’re teasing Bread Pudding Day in the cafeteria, and the cashier tells me it only happens once a year, and it’s tomorrow! Although I am not a bread pudding fan, after I missed out on the famed Lobster Day, I will not miss out on another once-in-a-year opportunity.
1:00 PM: Jules and I carpool to the VA to didactics. They switch from being at UCLA and the VA each week, and we are grateful for the free parking.
1:30 PM: We get a lecture on Dementia Pharmacology, and I am locked in. Love it when a lecture is directly applicable to what I’m doing.
4:30 PM: Jules and I go workout at Kinross, the gym for grad students and faculty at UCLA. It’s a nice facility with a range of equipment. We work out outside under the nice LA sun, and the ocean breeze cools us off.
6:00 PM: I go home and watch TV with my partner until we fall asleep.
11:00 AM: Although it’s hump day and my energy reserves are starting to be depleted somewhat, I get to call a patient’s son and update him on her progress.
Prior to me coming onto the team, the patient came to UCLA with medication-induced catatonia. On initial presentation, she was completely non-verbal and minimally interactive with the world. However, they peeled her off her meds and started her on clozapine. It’s a med that while it is one of our most effective meds, is also one of our last-line meds because it can be complicated to manage. In the weeks after, she has been so much better. Compared to when I first saw her, she is more interactive, speaking in sentences whereas she only used to speak in one-word phrases, and most of all, it is a pleasure to see her smiling. I get to relay the information to her son, for which he is grateful.
Moments like this are what make all the hard work worth it.
12:00 PM: I find out I don’t like bread pudding that much and Bread Pudding Day has not convinced me otherwise.
2:00 PM: It’s the R2’s didactics day, so I cover for them, which means Jules and I get to gab in the team room uninterrupted. We pull up Buzzfeed quizzes and do them ironically (but also not ironically?). After learning what fairy we would be based on the house we create (we both would be earth fairies), we grab matcha from ScrubJay Café for a caffeine re-up.
5:00 PM: Jules leaves, and I get to do my call shift. The Moonlighter has generously offered to pay for dinner, so we Uber Eats udon from a place in Sawtelle, which holds up surprisingly well on transit. Call shifts are a great opportunity to meet other residents from a mix of years, and it’s a good way to build community. The conversation topic of the day is weddings, and two residents are talking about how they got married on the UCLA campus.
7:00 PM: The way that call works is that we see patients in the ED who come for psychiatric emergencies. The fun of it is getting to be the first person who sees a patient and try to figure out what they need help with. You also get to decide what sort of care would be most appropriate for them.
The new patient comes in with suicidal ideation due to feelings of isolation. They’re a college student, and the start of the year has been very stressful for them. During the interview, I get the sense that they’re future-oriented and so I try some supportive interventions to encourage that hope in them. I evaluate that they’re not a high risk and recommend some resources that they can engage with like an Intensive Outpatient program through UCLA, which the social worker helps me connect them to. They feel comfortable going home, and after discussing the plan with my attending, I discharge them with close follow-up.
Although decisions like that were intimidating to me initially as an intern, I feel like after repeated exposure to the ED, I have more confidence in my skills at safety planning. I also staff with my attendings who are always supportive and help me think through my evaluations to make a thoughtful decision.
9:00 PM: There are no other consults for me to see in the ER, so my R3 lets me out early. I spend the rest of the night unwinding by reading my orchid magazine.
12:00 PM: I go to debrief the hearing with my patient. After explaining our concerns and wishes for the patient to remain in care, they are accepting and even a little more open after I took the time to explain things more fully to them.
5:00 PM: After a somewhat stressful day, I have a date with my partner. We eat some delicious Korean food at a mom-and-pop shop in Santa Monica.
7:00 PM: Pottery class time! After dreaming about it for so long, this month I decided to take a pottery class with my partner. Today is glaze day, so we are glazing the pots that we had built throughout the month. Although the things I’ve made are marginally better than a lump of clay, I glaze them anyway and pray for the best. Despite the hard clinical situations that can happen in psychiatry, I am happy I’m in a residency where I have the time to pursue a new passions.
1:00 PM: I check in with her before she leaves the unit. I thank her for working with us and for the progress she’s made, and she is thankful to us for finding her a secure place to stay.
4:00 PM: Time has flown by, and it is almost time to leave. Besides placing all the orders, finishing my sign-out, and making sure my patients are all tucked in, I pray silently that nothing happens over the weekend, and everyone stays happy and healthy. I trust in the nurses and docs who are covering for the weekend, but by God, I worry about geri patients.
6:00 PM: My partner and I go with my fellow co-residents in WeHo. Today’s cuisine is vegan Mexican food, and while I am not vegan, I really enjoyed my lion’s mane mushroom tacos.
8:00 PM: One of my favorite drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race is performing at a bar! We go see what is an iconic show, and I am never more grateful that I’ve moved to LA.
10:40 AM: I am stunned by all the beautiful orchids there are in California. The show is stunning with giant specimen plants grown over decades, as well as new and interesting hybrids I’ve never seen before. Compared to Houston, there are a lot more growers who have a diversity of different ways to grow. I also link up with my friends that I’ve made through the local orchid society. Although being a doctor is a salient part of my identity, equally meaningful is my life outside of being a doctor.
2:00 PM: After lunch at a wagyu pho spot, we make our way to the Palos Verdes Cliffs and walk along the ridge. Looking out into the ocean, I can almost see the Channel Islands. I cannot believe how accessible beautiful views are. Houston, which is a flat city and is not coastal, could never compare.
4:00 PM: We go home and have a chill rest of the day.
10:30 PM: We have a late movie night and go see a new movie at Century City Mall, objectively the best mall
12:00 PM: My partner and I rent bikes and make our way to Santa Monica, which is less than 50 minutes from us by bike. We walk along the beach. We have lunch at a café which has live jazz. We make our way home by train. I feel grateful again to be here.
PGY-1 Matthew Rios
Education
- Medical School: Charles R. Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program
- Undergrad: UCLA BS Neuroscience and Minor in Global Health
Bio
Matthew Rios (he/him/his/el) was born and raised in Long Beach, CA. He is a first generation college graduate and Mexican-American. He is a proud triple bruin doing his undergrad, medical school, and now residency at UCLA. Between undergrad and medical school he took one gap year where he worked at a Federally Qualified Health Center in their medical education department. Matthew was motivated to pursue psychiatry because of disparities and stigma around mental health in his own community. His interests in psychiatry include child and adolescent psychiatry, cultural psychiatry, medical education, and mentorship. He loves being outside doing hikes and traveling both locally and internationally. He is also a big fan of reality tv shows like Survivor, Amazing Race, and the Traitors.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
7:00am – I’m currently on the General Neurology Consult Service at UCLA. I arrive around 7am to pre-round on my patients. Typically, we see 1–3 patients, either as primary (neurology manages care and orders) or as consults (neurology provides recommendations to the primary team).
8:00am – We start rounds with the attending, usually a mix of table and bedside rounds. Depending on the day, rounds wrap up between 10–11am.
12:00pm – Lunch with the team outside.
1:00–5:00pm – Finish notes and place orders for my assigned patient.
5:00–10:00pm – I’m on short call today, paired with a senior for my first call shift. It’s a “buddy” shift to get oriented to UCLA’s workflow. We get busy with consults, but my senior calls for backup as needed. I evaluate a patient who, after discussion with the attending, doesn’t require admission. I safety plan with the patient and provide resources to bridge them to their upcoming appointment. Back upstairs, the moonlighter has brought dinner for the team. I wrap up documentation and sign out from my first call.
Tuesday
7:00am – Pre-round on my patient (quick breakfast sandwich from the cafeteria on the way up).
8:00am – Rounds with a new attending — this week, a neuro-oncologist. We often work with subspecialty-trained neurologists on consults.
12:00pm – Lunch outside with co-interns before didactics.
1:30–4:30pm – Weekly didactics, this week on child & adolescent psychiatry, taught by a CAP-trained attending. Didactics alternate between UCLA and the WLA VA; this week is at UCLA.
5:00pm – Head home, fit in a workout, dinner, and some downtime.
Wednesday
7:00–10:00am – Pre-round and round with the team; in the middle of rounds, we get a new consult for a patient with Parkinson’s disease.
10:00am–12:00pm – See the consult, perform a detailed neuro exam, and discuss the case with my neurology senior for input.
12:00pm – Lunch with the team.
1:00–3:30pm – Notes and prep for afternoon rounds.
3:30pm – Afternoon rounds to staff remaining consults. I present my patient and finalize the plan with my senior’s guidance. Wrap up notes, then head home.
Thursday
7:00–10:00am – Pre-rounding and team rounds.
10:00am–12:00pm – Work on notes and follow up on patient To-Dos. I also touch base with our Psychiatry CL colleagues regarding a patient’s psychiatric comorbidity, and after discussion, we adjust medications.
12:00–1:00pm – Lunch in the cafeteria.
1:00–3:30pm – Wrap up tasks and documentation.
3:30pm – Head home.
Friday
7:00–10:30am – Pre-rounding and rounds.
10:30am–12:30pm – Patient follow-ups, including recommendations from Internal Medicine Consults.
12:30–1:00pm – Lunch with the team.
1:00–2:00pm – Teach medical students on their psychiatry rotation about psychotic disorders using interactive questions.
2:00–10:00pm – Released early from neurology to rest before my first overnight call. I fit in a workout and short nap.
11:00pm – Arrive for overnight call. The senior who was on call — who happens to be my big sib. I say hi as he heads out and start my shift by logging onto the computer.
Saturday
12:00am – First consult of the night: a patient in the ED referred by his psychiatrist for voluntary admission. I complete an H&P and staff with the on-call geriatric attending.
1:00am – See a transferred pediatric patient; since they already have a bed, I can do the H&P in their room.
1:00–8:00am – I’m on pager, which feels daunting for a first overnight.
2:30am – Evaluate an adult with a first psychotic break in the ED. After staffing, we discharge with outpatient follow-up given good supports.
4:00am – See a child with suicidal ideation and OCD. After discussing with the CAP attending, we safety plan and allow them to continue outpatient care since they’re already in an IOP program.
5:00–6:30am – Catch up on documentation; only a few non-urgent pages come in.
6:30am – Grab breakfast at the 24hr Subway and push through the last stretch. After 6:30am, consults roll to the day team, but I keep the pager until 8am.
8:00am – Send out the overnight ED update email, then head home. I’m tired but awake enough to drive; if not, UCLA’s fatigue mitigation system would cover an Uber.
8:00am–12:00pm – Get some much-needed rest.
2:00–5:00pm – Take care of weekend chores.
5:00–10:00pm – Unwind with a workout and catch up on my favorite reality TV shows.
Sunday
8:00am – Go for a morning hike at a nearby trail.
10:00am – Grab breakfast at my favorite diner in West LA.
12:00–5:00pm – A mix of groceries, relaxing, and playing video games to recharge before the week ahead.
PGY-1 Anika Nawar Suetake-Ullah
Education
- MD, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine + CDU Medical Education Program
- M.S Media Arts + Technology, MIT Media Lab at MIT School of Architecture + Planning
- B.S, Human Biology + Interdisciplinary Computing in Visual Arts at UC San Diego
Bio
Hiiiiiii my name is Anika Nawar Suetake-Ullah (she/they), and I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area close to the majestic ~rivers and redwood forests~! I have a hybrid cultural heritage and jokingly call myself a ‘silk road baby,’ as I have ancestral roots spanning Bengal, the Marma Tribe (a semi-nomadic Tibeto-Burmese Indigenous Peoples), Sichuan, Yemen, and the Horn of Africa.
Since I can remember, I always envisioned a life in which I practice as both an artist and a healer while maintaining a deep connection with the natural world, as I am perpetually thinking about how memory, body, land, culture, and ecology intertwine. I went to UC San Diego for uni, where I studied Human Biology and Visual Arts while spending my free time surfing, skateboarding, making documentary films + contemporary art installations, working in a biotech lab, and starting a nonprofit focused on health and environmental justice in immigrant communities. After undergrad, I spent my first gap year as a Fulbright–National Geographic Research Fellow in Taiwan, working with the Ministry of Health and living with the Indigenous Amis Tribe to co-create a documentary film + medical anthro + citizen science project about culturally rooted harm reduction for betel nut use, a psychedelic plant medicine. I also embarked on multiple sidequests that year, not limited to: free diving for uni (sea urchin) + hunting in the forest, going on tour with an Indigenous psychedelic rock band, and helping organize a successful national land rights + environmental health case with the Pisirian Tribe. (✿˵◕ ɜ◕˵)
My second gap year took me to the MIT School of Architecture for a master’s in Media Arts + Technology at the MIT Media Lab, where I worked with Indigenous Māori communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and scientists on a film and design project for gene editing biotechnologies informed by Indigenous knowledge. I was also a MIT Transmedia Storytelling Fellow, through which I continued my contemporary arts + performance arts praxis and had the opportunity to contribute to an installation exhibited at the 2020 Venice Biennale! When the pandemic hit, I spent a free-spirited year living nomadically across coastal Mexico, the deserts of New Mexico, and Taiwan while writing music, completing artist residencies, living with nature, and applying to med school. From 2021–2025, I completed medical school at UCLA/CDU, diving into ecological and psychedelic medicine research work and completing an Integrative Psychiatry Fellowship through the UCLA Center for East–West Medicine — which took me to seven Asian countries to train in traditional mind–body healing earlier this spring!
I feel so honored to continue my journey here at UCLA Psychiatry, where I am constantly inspired by the deep empathy and striking diligence of my peers, seniors, attendings, faculty members, and quite literally everyone I have worked with at UCLA. Within the field, my interests span transcultural psychiatry, intergenerational trauma + mental health, designing multisensory healing spaces + community ecologies + therapeutic environments, interventional + integrative psychiatry, and interactive arts-based technologies that expand consciousness by bridging empathic human and non-human ways of being (and I feel so supported in these endeavors even with my niche affinities).
I love spending my free time working on music (my first album is in the works!), painting, sculpting, soaking + surfing in the sun, immersing myself in the mad inspiring LA underground arts + music scene, swimming in the ocean, making people laugh, counting my blessings, and striking up awe-inducing conversations with the beautifully diverse people of Los Angeles.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
AM: Today my ED shift is from 1pm- 11 pm, so I have a blisssfullll morning to myself. Still trying to make the most of Monday morning energy, so I wake up around 7 am and have a leisurely start to the day. I light a stick of cedarwood + osmanthus incense, put on a cozy olive knit set, toss my hair in a messy bun, and peruse my vinyl collection to curate my am soundtrack. I start with M.A.Y in the Backyard by Ryuichi Sakamoto from the Call Me By Your Name film score and make a pour over (mm ethiopian beans today) to pair with seasonal persimmon and a morning writing session in my backyard under a tree. I read an essay followed by a thought-provoking artist interview, space out with my floating thoughts under the blue sky, and spend the rest of my morning working on adding sakura tinted textures to a large oil painting, re-recording a bass line for a song in progress, dancing to groovy dub/reggae in the sun, and sending voice notes to loved ones.
PM: A very jam-packed day in the ED — I worked up and managed MI, cardiac tamponade, SBP, and a code stroke all in one shift! It was nonstop from start to finish, but days like these are incredibly valuable for deepening my confidence in calmly working up acute medical emergencies, which used to really intimidate me. Amidst the chaos, I found a little downtime to chat with a hilariously feisty patient who had just turned 100 years old about his hot takes on the secrets to a joyful life, and squeeze in a delicious ‘linner’ at 4 pm to uber eats my favorite salmon truffle yuzu poke bowl, covered by our amazing residency program benefits. I get home at 11:30 pm exhausted but fulfilled, and pass out before I hit my pillow. I dreamt about diving into a deep blue hole in the middle of the ocean.
Tuesday
Today is my day off! I secretly love having a random weekday off instead of the weekend — the city feels like it exhales a little, and I get to wander around my favorite neighborhoods without traffic or crowds. After sleeping in late, I head to a leafy courtyard café in Silverlake for a looooong lunch with a friend. We share Spanish tapas and a perfectly fluffy omelette while simmering in the afterglow of hot girl summer. In the afternoon, I stop by a moody new restaurant in Chinatown to visit and sample a new dish that my friend has been testing out (he’s one of the creative culinary leads)! After catching up over small bites and soaking in the atmosphere, I link with a friend who’s a designer for a lakeside Echo Park picnic at golden hour to people watch and hear about her wild stories from NYFW. As the sun sets, I head to the rooftop pool at Soho Warehouse in Arts District and meet up with my co-resident Mia for a friend’s album release performance and party. The city skyline merges with the sparkle of a thousand headlights demarcating the inescapable gaze of rush hour, but we’re floating above it all in our own little dream, making new friends and running into familiar faces, shapeshifting the youthful feeling of expansive possibility into a hazy memory that keeps you warm when winter comes. We migrate to Koreatown and end the day with late-night skewers at a smoky, alluring (Anthony Bourdain approved) hole-in-the-wall spot that always reminds me of a scene from Spirited Away. I go home feeling blessed for these midweek adventures that make this city feel like home, and the inspiring rhizomes of creative community shaping and breaking and remaking the persona of LA.
Wednesday
AM: Today my shift is from 11 am – 9 pm and a friend is visiting from out of town, so we decide to wake up at dawn, wear thick sweaters, and take a pair of Blue Bottle lattes and belgian waffles to go to the beach for sunrise. The sky is grey today but we enjoy the meandering drive up the Pacific Coast Highway and pull up to Topanga Beach, one of my favorite local surf spots. We lay out a picnic blanket next to the lifeguard tower and spend an hour chatting while watching the surfers lined up at the break, then pack up and pick a few bunches of wild forget-me-nots on the way back to the parking lot. We part ways and I head to work, feeling blessed that I got to spend the morning next to the ocean and good company.
PM: The day starts off surprisingly slow in the ED — not a single patient for the first hour of my shift — so I use the time to catch up with my co-interns while brewing a pour over and arranging a few wildflowers in a makeshift paper cup vase by my desk. The pace stays gentle through the evening, giving me the rare chance to bring patients warm blankets, sandwiches, and leisurely bedside conversations to brighten their night <3.
In the ED, I often meet patients with intense psychosomatic symptoms and negative medical workups who haven’t yet explored how their mental health might connect to what they’re feeling physically. On days like this, I really value having the time to sit with them, talk about the mind–body connection, and share guidance on the process for seeking mental health care. The ED is truly a frontline for both medical and psychiatric emergencies!
Thursday
AM: I work from 1 pm to 11 pm today, so I have my usual peaceful morning sleeping in until 9 am, then sunbathing and working on music for a few hours until I head to work. I plug my bass into my amp and start layering some ambient textures for a new Mango Blood track — I end up in a trance that feels like sunlight refracting underwater but my 3 pre-work phone alarms keep me accountable from completely drifting off into the ~ether~ hehe.
PM: The day in the ED flies by. I spend the first few hours moving briskly between rooms — one patient with chest pain, another with severe panic attacks, and a third with diabetic ketoacidosis. There’s a quiet satisfaction that comes with recognizing subtle patterns and trusting your instincts after months of repetition. During my dinner break, I get uni pasta delivered via uber eats and make a pot of tea while partaking in a mutually consensual light roasting session amongst the interns. I really love the laidback feel of the ED – all the attending I’ve worked with their too make me laugh at least 4 times a shift and infuse my day with special kind of vibrancy that makes time speed up and slow down at the same time. By the end of the night, I feel that pleasant kind of fatigue that comes from being fully present. I drive home with the windows down, listening to Khruangbin’s “August 10,” watching the city blur into streaks of light while fantasizing about reuniting with my pajamas and Daiso bunny slippers soon, so soon.
Friday
AM: My shift today is 11 am to 9 pm, so I wake up early to the smell of rain on pavement — rare in LA but I love the way it makes colors look more vibrant. I make a pot of jasmine tea and read a few pages from Apartmento, annotating in the margins ideas about sensory healing I might later integrate into my art projects. I leisurely chit chat with my partner while eating mungbean mooncake on tatami at home, warm up my body with laughter, then head to work with a calm mind.
PM: The ED feels like a living organism today — waves of intensity punctuated by stillness. I handle a patient with a rare autoimmune flare and another who came in after a panic-induced fainting spell. Between cases, I chat with a very cool ED attending who lives a double life as a well-known stand up comedian and share one of my song demos with another ED attending who I share an uncanny overlap in music taste with. The sense of camaraderie feels grounding. After my shift ends, I link with a friend for late night grilled skewers in K town before taking the long route home through Downtown, admiring how the wet asphalt mirrors the skyline lights and turn into liquid glass.
Saturday
Weekends in the ED tend to be slower but full of unexpected characters. My morning is quiet — I water my plants, do a 20-minute yoga flow, and sketch before heading in for my 1 pm to 11 pm shift. The waiting room is unusually calm, and between patients I steal a moment to journal quick life reflections in my notes app — working in the ED is exhausting and invigorating, a part of me wants to grasp onto the fragments of memory I have shared here with others and memorialize them so I have some kind of anchor amidst the seemingly perpetual chaos. When everything’s an emergency all the time, it feels like nothing’s an emergency. This rotation really teaches me how I can cultivate my own peaceful rhythm of being even when situated in an environment that has the potential at all times to be dramatically stressful – it’s a life lesson I feel I’ll carry with my wherever I go. Diamonds only form in conditions of pressure. On my 30-minute break, I sneak down to the hospital gym to lift weights and do a little cardio while listening to a dreamy playlist of dub and breakbeat house. When I return to the floor, the atmosphere shifts — a sudden code stroke, a collective pivot, the choreography of a team in motion. The adrenaline dissolves into quiet again by midnight, and I leave feeling oddly peaceful, as if I just witnessed a full spectrum of human life in twelve hours.
Sunday
Day off! I wake up to sunshine filtering through the curtains and feel instantly lighter. I start the day by visiting Yi Fang for my mountain pineapple green tea with aiyu jelly, then head to the Beams Japan pop-up in Arts District to see a beautifully curated exhibition on Japanese folk art and craft traditions + pop art. My partner and I stop by a sustainable lumberyard to peruse live edge wood slabs for a DIY home shelving project, then stop an arts + architecture focused bookstore to pick up a few new colorful reads (I got a cool book on graffiti + street art in Los Angeles)! After catching one of our favorite new bands Jemba Groove at the Zebulon in Echo Park and walking along the LA river in Frogtown, I return home, draw a warm bath, and re-watch a Wong-Kar-Wai film while my cat curls up beside me. I end the week the same way it began — quietly, intentionally — feeling the gentle gratitude of being alive, of doing work that challenges and inspires me, and of weaving beauty into the everyday.
PGY-2s
PGY-2 Ashley Du
Education
- Medical school: UCSD School of Medicine
- Graduate degree: MS, UCSD
- Undergraduate degree: BS, UCSD
Bio
Ashley (she/her) was born and raised in San Diego, CA. She attended UCSD, where she studied Biochemistry and discovered her passion for medicine and public health while volunteering and developing community health worker programs at free clinics in San Diego, Tijuana, and other regions of Mexico. After earning her Bachelor of Science degree from UCSD, she stayed at the university to complete her Master of Science and researched the effects of chronic e-cigarette inhalation on multiple organ systems in a mouse model. Initially drawn to family medicine during medical school for its opportunities to serve underserved populations and its focus on holistic health, she discovered her passion for psychiatry as a third-year medical student. She enjoys psychiatry for its opportunities to advocate for underrepresented populations, explore complex psychosocial situations, and its unique intersection with the legal system. Her interests in psychiatry include community psychiatry, working with individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), addiction, and women’s mental health. She is also interested in public health and advocacy and has collaborated with several grassroots organizations in San Diego to promote equitable health policies for all communities. In her free time, Ashley can be found exploring LA’s coffee and food scene with her fiancée, who is also a resident physician in LA.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
- 7:25AM: I arrive to the inpatient VA workroom and start pre-charting and pre-rounding on my 7 patients. I have one new admit from over the weekend to see today, who is presenting with paranoia and erotomania delusions.
- 9AM: I table round with the attending, the social worker, a second year medical student, and the other R2 on the team with me.
- 10AM: My favorite part of the day is when we see our new admits together with our attending. We have two new patients today and the MS2 leads one interview while I lead the other interview. Our attending jumps in at the end of each interview to ask further guiding questions. I find a lot of learning in watching his interviewing techniques.
- 12PM: Lunch is mediterranean food that is catered for us. We don’t have a cafeteria we can swipe our badge at when we are at the VA, but we are still well fed!
- 12PM-5PM: I work on notes, call collateral from families, and place consults for my patients.
- 5PM-10PM: I am on short call at the VA tonight where I am the senior for one of the interns. I order a salad off of ubereats to help me get through the call shift (we get ubereats credit when we are at the VA thanks to our union!) The intern and I switch off seeing ED consults and we ended up each seeing two patients tonight – it was a busier night. I see one patient with passive suicidal ideation relating to recently losing housing and spend time safety planning with him and discharging him. The other patient was a patient with potential first episode psychosis who I admit to our unit. As the senior on call, I am also in charge of managing CL and floor pages. We receive a consult from a surgery team regarding a patient reporting passive suicidal ideation but without acute behavioral or psychiatric concerns and I am able to defer it to our day CL team.
Tuesday
- Morning: My morning is the same as Monday’s routine.
- 12PM: Lunch today is Mexican food that is catered for us. We do not have scheduled teaching this afternoon and I take the time to take a break from patient care and catch up with co-residents from other VA services.
- 1PM-5PM: Today is the same as Monday’s tasks as I finish up notes, call collateral from families, and place consults for my patients. The interns have didactics today, so I cover any messages or additional tasks our intern needs to signout so they can attend their didactics.
Wednesday
- Morning: My morning is the same as other mornings although a little more hectic as I step away from rounds for a moment to do a probable cause hearing for one of my patients on an involuntary hold. While this is something that used to give me a lot of anxiety in intern year, as a R2 I have a lot more experience with these hearings and see it as an opportunity to advocate for my patients wellbeing.
- 11-12PM: I am tying up my patients for signout prior to didactics and finishing up notes and tasks.
- 1PM-5PM: We have protected time for our PGY-2 didactics. I drive from the VA to UCLA to attend our didactics. Today we receive a lecture on mood disorders, a lecture on lithium, and a lecture on psychotic disorders.
Thursday
- Morning: The same morning routine.
- 12PM: Today is a CL case conference led by one of the VA R2’s. The topic today is an interesting case of catatonia and delirium related to Ativan use. I eat a catered salad and listen to the CL attending’s expertise regarding catatonia management.
- 1PM-3PM: I finish up my usual tasks and am able to signout to my co-resident early and head home. At least one resident from each one of the VA teams stays physically until 5pm each day to respond to anything urgent from our panels. We often trade off so everyone gets an equal opportunity to leave early and cover their messages from home if possible.
Friday
- Morning: The same morning routine.
- 12PM: Today is countertransference rounds led by a few attending psychiatrists at the VA. Here, we discuss challenging patient situations and what emotions arise when we take care of these patients. We dive into psychoanalytic theories while eating our catered lunch of burritos and chips and guacamole.
- 1PM-5PM: Similar as other days, I finish my notes, work on orders, and calling families. I am discharging a patient today and work with our team’s social worker to ensure they have a safe disposition plan. I work with the patient on an individualized safety plan as they initially presented for suicidal ideation.
- 5PM-10PM: I am on short call at the VA with an R1 again. I order my chicken pesto sandwich with our ubereats credit and sign into the pager for the night. Today is a less busy call shift and the intern sees one ED consult while I manage the floor and CL pages. I get called about a patient admitted to inpatient medicine with severe agitation that resulted in a femur fracture and an aspiration event. With the guidance of my on call attending, I provide IV agitation recommendations, and sign out the patient to the day CL team for formal evaluation.
- 10PM-8AM: I try to squeeze in some rest. With the intern gone, I cover the pager for the floor, CL, and the ED. VA overnight call has been variable in terms of its volume, but tonight I am able to sleep 6 hours without being paged. I respond to a few non urgent nursing messages and am able to rest from 11pm-6am. At 8am, I signout to the Saturday day call team.
Saturday and Sunday
- LA is such a great city to live in – there are always so many options for activities to do on the weekend and there is always so much going on.
- This weekend I play pickleball with a medical school friend and catch up over an overpriced Erehwon smoothie.
- I also try a new local coffee shops with my partner.
- I make sure to spend a lot of time on the couch catching up on Netflix shows.
PGY-2 Toni Igbokidi
Education
- Medical School: Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University
- Graduate School: Creighton University
- M.S – Bioethics
- Undergraduate: University of Arkansas
- B.S – Biology; B.A – African American Studies
Bio
What’s up Good People! My name is Antonio or “Toni” for short. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Between my dad immigrating from Nigeria (Naija no dey carry last!), and my mom being in the Army, we made The Diamond State under the bible belt home. During high school, my family moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for a fresh start, but I decided to stay in state for college and attended the University of Arkansas (Woo Pig Sooie)! I knew I wanted to be a doctor but life is what it is sometimes, so I completed my masters in Bioethics and postbaccalaureate at Creighton University. After that, I was fortunate to go to medical school closer to my family at Texas Christian University School of Medicine. Psychiatry felt so natural and fun during the clinical years, and I always found purpose in it from previous experiences. I found out about the UCLA – Visiting Elective Scholars Program (VESP) at the Student National Medical Association’s (SNMA) Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC), and luckily was able to do a sub-internship here. Between my first time in California and the people in the residency, I felt the program and the people fit my interests and felt like home. The rest is history.
LA is great for all my sports interests. I have slowly converted into a Los Angeles Chargers Fan, and am enjoying seeing Luka Doncic and Lebron James at the Crypto Arena. Poetry and spoken word has always been a passion of mine so my wife and I frequent a couple of speakeasies in Central and DTLA with a Love Jones type of vibe. Other than that, beach bumming, enjoying new restaurants, making connections and growing our family has been a wonderful experience.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
Mornings: Im lowkey an early morning riser (I blame my mother’s military background plus or minus my needy dog). Maybe around 5am I get up, have my daily devotional, scroll through Twitter, walk my dog, and then read for about an hour. I’m reading “The Will of the Many” by James Islington right now in anticipation for the sequel. Mornings are nice because everything is peaceful before the day gets started. Afterwards, I prechart on my patients at home, and then get ready to head to the bus stop to catch the 7:36am Rapid 6 bus. I’ve been taking public transportation the past few months and it’s nice because it takes about 30 minutes, I dont have to drive, and I can go into autopilot or even finish precharting on my phone. After making it to the hospital, its heading straight to preround on my patients, make a couple of collateral calls and updates, and then prepare for rounds at 10am.
Afternoon: After rounds, I finish up any collateral calls and touch base with social work. Im on the child and adolescent inpatient service – Team Orange, so there is a lot of coordination of care, disposition work, and psychoeducation for patients, parents and caregivers. I have a virtual family meeting with a patient at 11:30 that was a bit challenging, but I’m able to debrief and socialize with my coresidents at Monday afternoon Resident Council, have a bite to eat, and unwind. After Res council, I have play therapy with my patients. Best part of child and adolescent psychiatry is that playing games can be therapeutic! They wash me in Connect 4 but I allow it today. Afterwards, I finish my notes and head out a little early by 3pm.
Evening: Straight from work to LA Fitness to get a good sweat. Pick up groceries for dinner and relaxation in the evening and watching Monday Night Football.
Tuesday
Morning: Morning routine and off to the bus. It’s Tuesday so we have psychotherapy rounds at 9am prior to rounds at 10. So a little bit more pep in my step to get To Do’s completed before rounds. In psychotherapy rounds, we work on reframing techniques with patients and families which is very useful.
Afternoons: Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) biweekly meeting happens on Tuesday, so I attend to fellowship, discuss upcoming programming being held for the residents, and our objectives for the upcoming virtual open house in a couple weeks. Tuesday is a little slower on the floor today but the ED is packed and our Consult Liaison team gets pretty busy seeing consults. Our program allows us to help our CL team and make $200 when they are not able to see patients in a reasonable time. After a little play therapy for my patient kiddos, I see a couple of patients in the Emergency Department and make some extra money.
Evenings: Notes are done and feeling my wallet restored, wifey and I decide to get a bite to eat at SilverLake Ramen. We then stop by our favorite wine bar – Offhand. The place is black owned and the vibes are immaculate. We have a glass (she has a mocktail of course) and the place happens to have a popup spoken word night. Its good energy to end a good day.
Wednesday
Morning: Today is treatment rounds, so rounds are a little bit longer than usual. I schedule all of my family meetings before lunch because I have didactics today.
Afternoons: We have protected time starting at 1-5. Nice to eat and catch up with the coresis. We are all locked in for our three part didactics today, starting off with our amazing Inpatient Psychiatry Pharmacist’s Pargol lectures. Lectures on Mood Disorders and psychosis.
Evening: After didactics, I go to Virginia Park in Santa Monica to play basketball. Good runs and good hoops. I get home to my apartment complex throwing a birthday party for a sweet one year old. I live at University Village, subsidized UCLA family housing with a ton of families and kiddos so its a wholesome community.
Thursday
Morning: a bit busier and atypical this morning. I take my wife to her OB appointment and get to see our little girl’s nose on ultrasound. It has me excited to see her this Christmas and be on paternity leave for eight weeks. We have some really good benefits because the University of California is unionized and the program really supports and facilitates families and childbirth. Wifey drops me off and it’s business as usual!
Afternoon: After rounds, I cover my coresidents patients while they go to didactics, and do some cognitive behavioral therapy with my kiddo patients. I loiter the inpatient halls just popping in on other teams, nursing staff, and jousting around. I start mentally preparing for my internal moonlight shift.
Evening: As the moonlighter, I’m One of six members of the weekday call team seeing consults in the Emergency Department from 4pm-11pm. Another great way to make good money that you can start as early as PGY2. I reach out to the night team to see what they want for dinner to pay for as moonlighters customarily do. We have Mendocinos and I see about three patients during the shift, ranging from psychosis to suicidal ideations to concerns for withdrawal. Its a long day and I decided to use Uber Fatigue, one of the many union perks to use a GME compensated uber ride and head home.
Friday
Morning: After I get to work, I prep my medical student for their observed rounds. We also discuss things about their chalk talk presentation to work on before presenting to the attending. They do such a good job giving a presentation on catatonia in child and adolescent patients that I learned a lot from!
Afternoon: After rounds, I give them my own little chalk talk on stimulants, and common presentation of questions on STEP 1 and 2. UCLA Psychiatry really values teaching and medical education, and I have been enjoying the different opportunities to give back.
Evening: I play chess relatively late in the day with one of my patients who needs some additional time and effort. We build significant rapport and I am learning I need to not be so aggressive with my rook. Afterwards, I head home and unwind with the family.
Saturday/Sunday
I have family coming from out of town and they want to see all things LA. So we do most of the touristy things: Runyon Canyon, The Getty, Santa Monica Pier. The weekend is topped off with the LA Chargers beating the Las Vegas Raiders at SoFi Stadium.
PGY-3s and 4s
PGY-3 Meghan Reddy
Education
- BA, Molecular and Cell Biology: UC Berkeley
- MD, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Bio
Meghan is a lifelong Californian who was born and raised in the SF Bay Area. She went to UC Berkeley (obligatory go bears) to study Molecular and Cell Biology with a concentration in Immunology after taking and loving a class in high school pretentiously called Pestilence and Civilization. In her first two years of college, she considered many possible paths including bench research (one semester was more than enough) and high school health education (she still loves this one) before settling on caring for older adults after hearing some fantastic stories as a volunteer at a dementia care center. Not ready to commit to applying to medical school, she decided to put her degree to use as a clinical researcher in cancer immunotherapies at Stanford while continuing to volunteer at The Berkeley Free Clinic as an HIV Test Counselor. She finally left the Bay Area to start medical school at UCLA which is her best and only move to date. Initially with plans to pursue medicine and then geriatrics, Meghan fell in love with psychiatry on her third year clerkship on the gold team right here at Resnick! Therefore it is no surprise that she is absolutely thrilled to continue at UCLA for her residency training. She’s now geriatric psychiatry’s biggest fan and loves to talk about happy, healthy aging, particularly how we can create community and connection for isolated older adults. When she’s not in the hospital, Meghan spends her time reading (mysteries and memoirs), watching horror movies and adult cartoons, de-stressing with the NYT sudoku, and just generally enjoying Los Angeles and its fantastic lack of discernible seasons or weather.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
Morning: I wake up at 8:00 AM and do some precharting for my afternoon clinic before my therapy supervision. During supervision, I spend an hour with a faculty member talking about the two patients I see each week for psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Afternoon: I head to UCLA to get Resident Council meeting started as one of the Resident Council Co-Presidents. I grab some free lunch and update everyone on all the new residency goings-on. I have always been a big fan of student government and love being involved in residency. Right after the end of meeting I head to GEC, the Geriatrics Evaluation Clinic. I have a second year medical student shadowing me while we see one new patient and three follow ups some of who come in person and other who present over Zoom. I have been interested in geriatric psychiatry since I was a medical student, so I’ve been excited about joining this clinic for a while!
Evening: I leave work at 6:30 after I close my encounters and clear out my inbox. I catch up on some TV before going to bed a little early to get some extra sleep after staying up late the night before moonlighting in the ED.
Tuesday
Morning: I wake up at 7:00 AM and head to UCLA by 8:00 AM for PGY3 didactics. We are learning about anxiety disorders and substance use disorders.
Afternoon: I grab lunch outside with some of my coresidents. It’s always a fun time to catch up and learn about all the different experiences everyone is having in their clinics. After lunch, I head to my office in Semel to attend my research group meeting. I have been in the same research group since medical school and this year my schedule allows me to attend meetings regularly. I would usually see both my therapy patients, but one of them is on vacation so finish a little earlier than usual and spend the rest of the afternoon answering patient messages, refilling medications, answering emails, and of course chit chatting with my coresident Daniella who has the office next to mine.
Evening: I have evening didactics for Mood Disorders Clinic from 5-6PM. Dr. Gitlin who is who is a mood disorders expert and the director of our clinic teaches us about lithium. I was scribbling away the whole hour collecting all the high-yield information. After I head home and have dinner, I go on a neighborhood walk with a few of my friends. I live in Sawtelle so the walk took us by a few dessert spots, and we couldn’t help but grab some Millet Crepe.
Wednesday
Morning: I have break in my schedule! I lounge at home and do some self-care. I love doing my nails and put on a fresh coat of my favorite Essie shade.
Afternoon: I head to UCLA to provide coverage for the PGY2s while they are at didactics. I alternate between covering floor issues and seeing new consults. This week I’m covering the floor. Coverage lasts from 1:00-5:00PM.
Evening: I prechart for my clinic on Thursday morning and call my parents for our weekly checkin.
Thursday:
Morning: I start the day early. I have to be at UCLA by 7:15AM for Mood Disorders Clinic Supervision. This is a chance for the residents in the clinic to chat directly with Dr. Gitlin about any clinical questions that have come up over the past week. I have my first patient at 8:15 and have four follow up patients and one new intake all over Zoom. My patients today have a mix of treatment resistant depression and bipolar disorder. Afternoon: I finish up my notes from clinic and grab some lunch with a group of PGY2s and interns on the turf by the Reagan cafeteria. I have PEC (Program Evaluation Committee) Meeting. This is a meeting for all the program leadership including our, PD, APDs, Track Directors, Program Chiefs, and Resident Council Presidents (me!) to come together and discuss any program issues. After the meeting, I spend some time on research pulling together an abstracts for a conference.
Evening: I am on call! R3 call is from 5:00PM to 10:00PM and we hold the pager, assign consults, and manage floor issues. I have some time between tasks to prechart for my clinic on Friday morning.
Friday:
Morning: I wake up at 7:00AM, and head to the VA at 8:00AM for Substance Use Disorder Clinic. We start with an hour of didactics on the management of opioid use disorder. I have three follow patients and one new intake. This week all my appointments are over the phone. Since I am at the VA, I get to use my UberEats benefits and order myself some mapo tofu from TigaWok.
Afternoon: I finish up my notes from clinic and of course spend some more time on patient messages and medication refill requests. I also have to send some emails and complete a few tasks for my role as Inpatient Chief.
Evening: I make the hour drive to Silverlake to meet my friend from college who is visiting from the Bay Area. We grab some food from Pine and Crane (an LA staple), and she tolerated me taking picture of all of our dishes. As a recent member of the Yelp Elite squad, I am always maximizing my reviews. Afterward we get some drinks at The Ruby Fruit before I drop her off at Burbank Airport. There is nothing like catching up with a friend who has known you for over a decade.
Saturday:
Morning: I wake up late and do a little yoga. My age is catching up to me and working on my flexibility is a priority. I take the morning to catch up on the chores that have been stacking up all week.
Afternoon/Evening: I go to the beach with two of my friends from medical school. It’s a gorgeous day for the beach and not too busy near Annenberg Beach House. They are residents in internal and emergency medicine, so of course we spend a little time decompressing about work before they jump in the ocean, and I pull out my book. I am reading I, Robot by Isaac Asimov which still holds up 75 years after its publication. After I get home, I eat dinner and watch a horror movie The Woman in the Yard. Watching horror movies alone is one of my favorites ways to decompress.
Sunday:
Morning/Afternoon: I go to the PCC (Pasadena City College) Flea Market with a few friends. I am a bit of a flea market fiend and this is my favorite one. I had a very successful day grabbing two pendants and snagging a few vintage copies of books by my favorite author, Agatha Christie (I have a bit of a collection).
Evening: I meet up with a few other medical school friends who are residents in psychiatry and pathology for dinner. We get Japanese curry at Coco Ichibanya and top it off with dessert at Indigo Cow. We spend some time talking about our upcoming trip to Mexico for a mutual friends wedding.
PGY-3 Alexis Smith
Bio
Alexis grew up in Dexter, a small farming town in Southeast Missouri, where she spent her time playing team sports and enjoying her grandmother’s Southern cooking. She went on to complete her undergraduate studies in neuroscience at Vanderbilt University, where she met her now-wife, Mckenna. She then moved east to attend medical school at Harvard. Alexis hopes to pursue a career in academic psychiatry with interests in psychosis, medical education, quality improvement, and lifestyle medicine. During her time at UCLA, she has been involved in restraint reduction efforts through the NPH ROAR Initiative and is thrilled to be serving as Co-President of the Residents’ Council and one of our EDCL Chief Residents. In her free time, you’ll find Alexis cycling (espresso rides anyone??), weightlifting, hiking with her dogs, and enjoying the California beaches!
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
I start the week with an administrative half day in the morning, which I use to follow up on patient messages and voicemails, check emails, complete pending paperwork, and pre-chart for the week ahead. At noon, I head to Ronald Reagan to co-lead our Residents’ Council meeting alongside my fantastic Co-President, Meghan Reddy. This is a resident-only meeting (with delicious lunch—usually Indian or Mediterranean!) where we connect with co-residents, provide program updates, and gather feedback to help improve the residency experience. In the afternoon, I meet with my RPC (Resident Psychotherapy Clinic) patients and my therapy supervisor, who is teaching me ISTDP (Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy)! Most residents will have 1 hour of supervision (& from my experience, our supervision here is great!) for every 1 hour of therapy.
Tuesday
In the morning, I join my fellow R3s for didactics. It’s so nice to get this protected time together each week with the rare opportunity to have everyone sitting in the same room! This week, we heard from Dr. Distler—a leading expert in anxiety disorders—followed by special guest, Dr. Elyn Saks, who shared with us her experience living with psychosis and offered powerful insights on treating patients with compassion and humanity. In the afternoon, I head downtown to work with The People Concern FSP team as part of my external moonlighting. I visit patients in their homes, shelters, or encampments alongside our team of social workers and case managers. It’s a really wonderful opportunity to work with this population and I feel really fortunate to learn from such an awesome multidisciplinary team.
Wednesday
Mornings are spent seeing patients in our CBT clinic. I typically see 3 patients with direct observation by my supervisor, which really enriches the learning experience! This direct observation is followed by 1 hour of additional supervision, where I receive feedback on the morning’s sessions and go over my cases in more detail. At lunch, I join co-residents on the beautiful Ronald Regean lawn (usually opting for the famous Wednesday chicken tortilla soup!) then grab a coffee from Scrub Jay before heading to our General Outpatient Clinic (GOC).
Thursday
begin the day at the West Los Angeles VA working in the HPACT clinic for unhoused veterans. I work closely with primary care, social work, psychology, and case management. As I’m wrapping up my work for the morning, I order lunch on Uber Eats—we get $200 per month on Uber Eats to spend on food while at the VA! In the afternoon, I head over to Ronald Reagan for our weekly residency leadership meeting, attended by our program chiefs, residents’ council presidents, PD, APDs, and the irreplicable Dulce from our admin team. We discuss current and anticipated residency issues and projects, as well as brainstorm ways to implement feedback we receive from residents and attendings to constantly improve the program!
Friday
This is one of my favorite days of the week and not just because the weekend is near—it’s time for Psychosis Clinic! While the cases can be complex, I find them to be really rewarding. The supervision is fantastic (including by our director and leading psychosis expert, Dr. Stephen Marder), and I’m always learning something new. In the afternoon, I wrap up notes, call patients, check my inbox/voicemail, and take care of any urgent issues before the weekend!
Saturday/Sunday
PGY-4 Erin Hegarty
Education
- University of Washington School of Medicine, Spokane, WA
- Master of Arts in Sport Administration, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
- Bachelor of Science in Health Science Studies, Baylor University, Waco, TX
Bio
I was born and raised in eastern Washington by my two loving parents and older brother and sister. I moved to Waco, Texas, after high school to run cross country and track at Baylor University. I spent the next two years after graduating in Chapel Hill, NC, getting my masters degree in Sport Administration. Working in student-athlete development at UNC was the start of a growing interest in mental health. After spending a year coaching cross country in Ohio, I decided to take the plunge and come back to Washington for medical school, which ended up being the best four years of my life to date. I was not interested in psychiatry at all prior to medical school or even prior to rotations but that all changed after working with Dr. Anisha Boetel at Sacred Heart in Spokane, WA. My consult-liaison (CL) psychiatry rotation as a third year helped solidify my decision to pursue psychiatry, and it’s been the best decision (as you probably know if you’re reading this page!) In addition to CL psychiatry, I’m also interested in medical education and ethics. UCLA felt like the perfect place to explore those interests and do it under incredible program leadership. Outside of work, I love playing cards with my partner over coffee, trying new vegan spots, running in the Santa Monica Mountains, and traveling easily from LAX. It’s still on my LA bucket list to spot Justin or Hailey Bieber at least once before I leave LA.
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
My alarm goes off between 7 and 7:30 am on Mondays (so dreamy.) I love a slow morning with coffee to ease into the week. After pre-charting for patients, responding to emails, and the odd meeting, I will take my phone with me on a run or do a strength workout on my sunny porch before heading to campus for lunch at the hospital cafeteria. The benefit of having meal money to the cafeteria cannot be over-stated: the food is so high-quality with lots of options for all sorts of diets. After lunch, I meet with a psychodynamically trained psychiatrist for therapy through “RPEP,” a program for residents to receive psychodynamic psychotherapy to learn more about the process. I then meet with Dr. Debonis for an hour to staff patients I saw the previous week in my clinic for college students (SHIP). She rocks, and I always walk away with some good pearls. Next, I see one of my two weekly therapy patients for a 50-minute therapy session. And that wraps up my work day! I head home (probably after stopping by the cafeteria again for snacks) before biking home to my apartment. After eating dinner with my partner, we might throw on a TV show or movie or just chit chat on the couch.
Tuesday
I’m up by 6:30 to go for a run and shower before heading to the hospital for some pre-didactics breakfast. We started the year with such a fun series on sex and couples therapy. After didactics conclude at 11 am, I may try to catch some of Grand Rounds before biking off campus to my Westside DBT therapy elective. Once a week, I get to sit in on group DBT from 12-1:30 pm. I’m really enjoying learning the different DBT skills. After that concludes, I bike back to campus to eat a quick lunch in my office before I see patients from 2-5 pm in my SHIP clinic. I usually stay to work on notes and place orders and send important follow-up emails/messages until about 6 pm before biking home for the day. After a quick dinner, I drive to a friend’s house for a mini “book club” with three other psychiatry residents to discuss the first half of “The Bell Jar” over a cute charcuterie board. I’m back home by 9 pm, and in bed by 10 pm or so. On some Tuesdays, I will be joining a Southern California Psychiatric Society (SCPS) meeting on Zoom as part of an elective I created to get more involved in the SCPS Governmental Affairs (GA) committee.
Wednesday
I usually wake up around 6:30 am today to have a few minutes to read/pray before I head to campus for my morning Anxiety Disorders Clinic. I’m learning to do Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with two long-term patients each Wednesday and see a couple patients for medication management in between. This is such a cool clinic because our entire appointment is observed by the attending so we can get real-time feedback. After clinic, I usually go outside and work on notes for 30-60 minutes at some sunny tables outside the clinic before walking over to the cafeteria for lunch. I then head to my office (which has a window, a fourth-year privilege) to see patients remotely for my external moonlighting job from 1:30 to 5 pm. I then try to take a short walk outside in the sun before I hop onto Zoom for my group therapy supervision from 5:15 pm until around 6:45 pm. I head home, hug my partner, go for a walk and listen to a podcast, and then eat a late dinner. Sometimes, I’m up pre-charting for my Thursday morning clinic till 9:30 or 10 pm but ideally I’ll have done it the weekend before.
Thursday
You know the drill, wake up at 6:30 am and finish prepping notes with coffee for an hour or so before I head to the West LA VA for my HPACT clinic, a special clinic designed to serve veteran patients experiencing homelessness. The clinic runs from 8 until noon. I hop on Zoom again for my DBT weekly supervision from 12 to 12:50 pm. Then, I either head to a building close by for an interventional psychiatry consult (for TMS, ketamine, and/or ECT). After seeing a new patient, I meet with the attendings and all the other residents in the clinic to present my case and discuss what interventions would benefit the patient most. Dr. Dunn and Dr. Farrag are great teachers.I love Thursdays because a) I get Uber Eats for lunch b) the interventional clinic is so enjoyable c) it means the busiest part of my week is over. After clinic, I head to the gym at the WLA VA (which is free for residents!) to do a leg workout. Then I walk or bike home to my apartment to make dinner and unwind for the night with my partner.
Friday
I sleep in till 7 am or so, then go for a run in my neighborhood (I love running around the Brentwood golf course) before I come back to make breakfast, enjoy coffee, and finish up any notes I haven’t finished for the week. I see my second therapy patient via Zoom around 10 am. Since it’s the summer, I then head to campus for whatever 12 pm lunch talk is happening that day before the Clinician Educator Concentration (CEc) didactics start at 1 pm. Dr. Heldt has carefully crafter the concentration so every lecture feels really relevant and helpful. It’s also just fun getting to know the third-years a little better since I’m the only fourth-year resident repeating the concentration. We usually finish up by 4 pm or so. If I’m feeling frisky, I may walk over to the Scrub Jay Cafe for an afternoon soy milk Matcha using my cafeteria money. Fridays are usually date night so, after answering MyChart messages and emails for a little while outside in the sun, I head home to hang with my partner.
Saturday & Sunday
Now that I’m a fourth year, I rarely work on the weekends! We don’t take call as fourth years so I’m only at the hospital if I have signed up for an internal moonlighting shift (which I do about once per month now.) This weekend, I FT with a few friends after a run on Saturday before heading to an “art walk” with some friends. We take the train to the Museum of Contemporary Art in DTLA and walk around discussing various pieces together. Then, we walk to the Grand Central Market for a casual dinner. After a hot train ride home, my partner and I shower and call it a day! Sunday is for church, the Brentwood Farmers Market, calling family, an afternoon coffee with a friend, grocery shopping, and doing various errands/to-dos. I love getting into bed early to read and have pillow talk with my partner before we start the next week.
PGY-4 Jessica Sheu Haslam
Education
- Undergrad: Rice University (Houston, TX)
- Medical school: Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX)
Bio
Hi y’all! I am from Rowland Heights, a small (very Asian!) suburb east of LA, raised by my mom and grandparents. I feel so lucky to have grown up having pride in my Taiwanese heritage, after spending many summers traveling back and forth to Kaohsiung as a kid. For college, I wanted to explore somewhere completely out of my comfort zone of my LA home, and ventured out to Houston for college at Rice (where I was an EMT!) and then stayed for medical school at Baylor! In medical school, I was drawn to Psychiatry because I was interested in the biopsychosocial aspects of patient care, and dedicated to treating the patient as a whole. When applying to residency, I was eager to come home and was so grateful to match into my #1 dream psychiatry program at UCLA!! My husband is now also a Pulmonary & Critical Care attending (after spending one year in long-distance as he finished up fellowship training at Baylor!), so it’s also been so rewarding to collaborate with different specialties within UCLA Health for the benefit of our patients!
When not at work, you can find me running on the treadmill in the morning, at the local farmer’s market on the weekends (fresh eucalyptus for the shower is a must), curled up outside on the balcony with a library book, or on the couch watching the latest dating reality TV show, or planning my next weekend trip with my husband (I love making itineraries!!). Also, after spending the last few months of PGY-2 working part-time as a wedding planner for my own wedding, I earned my Yelp Elite status so I must keep that up by trying new restaurants here! In all, I am so proud to train at UCLA Psychiatry alongside my incredible peers, mentors, and colleagues and treat patients together within the greater UCLA Health system family!
Follow Me for a Week
Monday
Morning: I wake up at 5 AM & start the morning with a recovery run! Today’s album that I’m running to is Taylor Swift’s Reputation, because I know I have a busy week ahead and this pump-up music does get me “ready for it”!! Once I hit 10k and get my runner’s high, I get ready for the day – then, I make my 6-minute drive from my apartment to the West LA VA Campus for my “Thoughts and Perceptions Disorders” Clinic (8-11AM). This year, I specifically selected this clinic to not only learn from our APDs Dr. Yvonne Yang and Dr. Jared Greenberg but also receive full hands-on training experience with novel antipsychotic agents (like Cobenfy!), long-acting injectable medications and treating a unique population of veterans experiencing psychosis, co-morbidities such as substance use disorders, and PTSD. I order Ubereats for a delivery of a “buy 1 get 1” meal from a local salad place straight to the clinic!! Residents rotating at the VA get $200 meal credit for ubereats delivery a month (thank you to our union!!).
Afternoon: After our 1-hour didactics, I rush over from the VA to attend our weekly Resident Council meeting on UCLA’s Resnick campus (about a 10-minute drive from the VA!) alongside my program co-chief Jason and presidents Alexis and Meghan with the rest of our residents! It’s a chance to catch-up in person and talk all things psychiatry related or share what we did the weekend before! Afterwards, I head over to my office in Med Plaza 300 (I have a nice window view of the most beautiful rainbow tree!) for my Resident Psychotherapy Clinic (RPC) in which I provide therapy with a longitudinal patient – my particular focus is psychodynamic psychotherapy with some elements of CBT when appropriate!
Evening: I head home to enjoy that second meal from Ubereats, watch some reality TV (Love is Blind UK!!) and finish some more chapters of my latest library book, “Every Summer After” (after patiently waiting for weeks!!). My phone goes on “do not disturb” automatically at 7 pm since I’m an early sleeper – but I do a quick check of my work phone before bedtime to make sure there’s nothing urgent and then head to bed!
Tuesday
Morning: Tuesdays start earlier than usual for me! I wake up slightly before my 4 AM alarm (actually love when this happens to avoid that surprise jolt from the clock) and enjoy a Celsius before a faster speed run in my apartment gym! I enjoy seeing the sun rise as my body starts waking up — today, I ran to a “Fred again”’ playlist to get the BPM up!! Then I rush over to UCLA Resnick for our weekly 7-8 AM supervision session in which I spend the hour with Dr. Gitlin and my fellow PGY4 co-residents in the same clinic, discussing our patients for the week together in one setting, learning from each other in real-time! Then, I have an hour to catch-up on some work before joining my co-residents again for our weekly PGY4 didactics from 9-11 AM. Today, we are learning the pros and cons of setting up a private practice post-residency with UCLA Psychiatry former grads Dr. Victoria Huang and Dr. Elizabeth Casalegno (co-founders of the successful psychiatry group practice Adelpha!). Then from 11 AM-12 PM, I have psychotherapy supervision with psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff, who is a member of the Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association (PCFA) – an organization unique to UCLA Psychiatry whose members are psychiatrists dedicated to teaching residents like me! I always appreciate the guidance Dr. Orloff provides out of her busy schedule to help guide me into becoming the best psychotherapist I can be.
Afternoon: Then, in the afternoon from 12:45 – 4:15 PM, I am seeing patients both in-person and via telehealth in the UCLA Mood Clinic. Here, I see a variety of mood disorders, from treatment-resistant depression and bipolar disorder to schizoaffective disorder cases, as well as cases of severe borderline personality disorder. I have had the opportunity to learn how to effectively and safely treat patients with MAO-inhibitors and intranasal ketamine and have worked with clinicians from other specialties to manage comorbid medical complexities as well. In this clinic, I also am able to learn from attendings who are experts in the field! I use the 45 minutes afterwards to catch up on notes and place orders before joining the rest of my co-residents in a weekly Tuesday evening Mood Seminar series hosted by Dr. Gitlin from 5-6 PM – today’s lecture is a continuation of an in-depth analysis of SSRIs.
Wednesday
Morning: I sleep in just a little bit before waking up for another run! Wednesdays are often my busiest days given that I am in the UCLA Student Behavioral Health clinic – seeing patients who are currently students on the UCLA campuses! It’s been so wonderful to learn about the UCLA school system (what are quarters?!) and all of the resources that are available for folks who are actively learning. It’s been so great to see how integrated psychiatry and therapy have been in this clinic all for the benefit of our student learners, from undergraduates to graduate students!
Afternoon: Then, I have a brief lunch break – then I jump into Women’s Life Clinic in which I learn from experts in reproductive psychiatry (including Dr. Unverferth and Dr. Booth!) and treat female patients before, during and after pregnancy as well as through perimenopause and PMDD. Today, we are gaining in-depth training on Zuranolone – when/how to safely administer it, if patients who are breastfeeding can use it (yes, they can!) – and hear and learn about challenging cases from my co-residents.
Evening: I enjoy a nice dinner from the salad bar in the Reagan hospital cafeteria – which is always stocked with the freshest ingredients and menu items! Residents get free $25/day meals (thank you to our union!) so I certainly take advantage of this!!
Thursday
Morning: After another 10k run (today was to a DJ mix on Spotify – a little of Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter!), I get my home desk ready for my telepsychiatry clinic! On Thursday mornings, I am in remote in the Dept of Mental Health Palmdale Clinic through LA County and see patients virtually – and it is certainly a different and humbling experience to treat patients with limited resources.
Afternoon: I have RPEP (Resident Psychotherapy Educational Program) with the wonderful Dr. Metzner, where I am both a patient and a trainee of psychotherapy! In the afternoon, I then have our weekly leadership meeting (“PEC”) where I am able to see my co-chiefs Jason and Laina, the Res Council Presidents Alexis and Meghan as well as the Dr. Heldt and all the track directors as well as our amazing program coordinator Dulce! I then have Student Health Clinic supervision with Dr. DeBonis with my co-PGY4 Brian where we review our patient cases together and learn from really challenging and unique presentations! Then I go straight over back to UCLA Reagan to internally moonlight – and since I’m the call team’s moonlighter, as per tradition, I treat both the short call and night float intern as well as the PGY3 to UberEats! Today I named our Uber Order “Haslam’s Hometown (Thai) BBQ” for Bangkok BBQ thai food! As a PGY4, I actually love being on call because I don’t get that ED/CL experience any longer in the outpatient life, and it gives me such a great experience to work closely with the interns, PGY2 night float (when they come on at 10 PM!) and the PGY3 on call.
Friday
Morning: This morning, I definitely enjoyed waking up and sleep in! The mornings after moonlighting is always my recovery time as I do end up staying later at the hospital and since I do not have clinics on Fridays, I have some time to (finally!) slow down! This includes a slower run for the morning, this time to Taylor’s Red album! Usually I catch up on patient messages, chief duties, and then listen in remotely to our noon lunch talks – and today was no different!
Afternoon: In the afternoon, I drive over to the beautiful Thousand Oaks where my husband lives and works, and I love to hear in the beautiful scenery as I drive out of the city and into the suburbs! It’s so exciting to imagine that shortly after residency finishes, I will be starting as an Outpatient psychiatrist in Westlake Village at UCLA here!! I then prep a delicious meal for my husband and I to enjoy after a long week and catch up on the next episode of our show of the moment, Dark Matter!
Saturday
My husband and I get a workout prior to starting the day – me on another run and him in the weight room! We both catch up on some more patient notes and messages, and we plan a fun day ahead of us! We end up going on a hike to the Paradise Falls, one of the most gorgeous waterfall hikes in the area!! We finished the evening off with a little reading date at the local Thousand Oaks library, where I’m reading another Elin Hildebrand book (“The Hotel Nantucket”), and Sam is working on getting through a pulmonary textbook!!
Sunday
After another workout, Sam and I proceed for Sunday Funday where we drove about 30 minutes over to the gorgeous El Matador State Beach in Malibu (where we took our engagement photos!!). It’s so wonderful to be able to live so close to the most gorgeous beaches in the world! We played frisbee on the beach (on multiple occasions, we saved the poor frisbee from almost being swallowed by the Pacific Ocean!!)! We enjoyed lunch at Neptune’s Net (worth it for the biker crews and overall Malibu vibe!!) and headed home. Another incredible week complete!!