Internal Medicine Oakland - Residents

Sometimes you feel like you know a place when you navigate to its website. The margins are comfortable. The menus are intuitive. Most of the words are spelled correctly and there aren’t too many banner advertisements for shady pharmaceuticals. Sometimes initial website impressions are enough to give you confidence that this is a residency program where you could learn to practice medicine, where you could spend your formative years as a trainee.

As a current second-year and enthusiastic member of the Kaiser Oakland Internal Medicine residency program, I can say, with a full appreciation for how great this website is, that it only skims the surface of everything the residency has to offer.

Let me guess: You’re either from the Bay Area, want to move to the Bay Area or both. What you may not realize is that, when you’re thinking about the “Bay Area,” it’s actually Oakland that you desire. The sun is close to literally always shining. There’s natural diversity of thought, people, arts, activities, food, and environment. Folks here like to have fun and like it when other people are also having fun. It’s a walkable city, a talkable city, a bike-able city, a likable city. A city full of people who enjoy working a rhyme or two into their daily routine.

The medical center where we spend most of our time reflects the community in which it stands: Abundant windows welcome natural light into a space filled with friendly staff, loyal patients, and soothing sounds from the construction site down the block. There’s a dive bar across the street, fine-dining options a few steps farther, and public transportation not far in the other direction. There are also homeless encampments if you set out through the neighboring park; we are unmistakably in the center of it all, which includes regular reminders of growing inequity and its impact on health.

Now I get to type something that many residents in other programs will never have the good fortune to honestly type: Our program takes care of us. Yes, we still work too much. Yes, we still have to pre-round and write progress notes. And, yes, unfortunately, there is no avoiding the illness and grief the meet us at work on many days. But what makes this program special is that our leadership listens when we ask for help, and they actually care about our health as much as our patients.

No matter where you end up training you are going to learn the medicine. There’s no avoiding it. The patients are going to bring it to you, they are going to ask you to know it, and they are going to make sure you don’t miss anything important. What’s essential, though, is that you find a place, like Kaiser Oakland, where you’ll be supported during your time learning from those patients, where you’ll find happiness as often as not, and— this is critical — where you’ll find a good website.

“As the proud son of two primary care physicians on the South Side of Chicago, I grew up witnessing disparities in access to care first-hand.  As an undergraduate student participating in medical missions, I experienced the impact on communities when there was inconsistent access to electricity or clean water.  Like many of us, I pursued medical school to make a difference in the lives of my community. While in medical school at Meharry, I met the program faculty from Kaiser Oakland at the National SNMA conference. I was drawn to the diversity of Oakland and to the mission of the residency program and have been thrilled to be a resident here.  During residency, I became enamored with hematology and oncology. Our residency’s faculty were incredible mentors– I led several research projects and presented my findings at multiple conferences, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology national meeting.  I am currently looking forward to starting a fellowship in Hematology-Oncology and I feel very well prepared clinically and in terms of the research skills, I have gained.  During residency at Kaiser Oakland, I have also had ample time to pursue my passion for community advocacy, such as volunteering at the Word Assembly Faith & Medicine series, an initiative to empower Black men to improve their health through regular small group discussions on health-related topics. And I have remained committed to pipeline development in the form of one-on-one and group mentoring with the HELIX high school mentorship program, Target HOPE college preparatory program, and at Oakland Charter Middle school. All in all, my decision to train at Kaiser Oakland has been incredibly rewarding and I can’t wait for the next chapter to begin!

My passion for health equity stems from my personal experiences with my family in Kenya. During high school, I started to experience a lot of death and loss in my family. It was always due to a lack of health equity in a way that didn’t exist in the US.  I always felt that if they were only here in the US, then they would probably still be here today. Even though I can’t fix that or bring them back, I can dedicate my career to preventing other people from facing similar health inequities and work on decreasing the gap. This passion brought me to medicine, and the Global Health experiences in Kenya during residency at Kaiser Oakland fueled this passion further. I also developed very meaningful mentorship relationships while at Kaiser Oakland that helped guide me to where I am. I am excited to explore a Global Health career path in more depth through the UCSF HEAL fellowship which will station me abroad in Rwanda as well as on the Navajo reservation. Residency at Kaiser Oakland has prepared me well for the challenges ahead and for exploring a career in global health!

What is Kaiser Oakland to me? It is a place where there is truly no such thing as a “dumb” question, where you are never alone, where you are allowed to be yourself and learn at your own pace, and a place where you are a valued member of the treatment team. It is a place where you serve a blue-collar population that is immensely diverse from a socioeconomic, educational, ethnic, and religious standpoint. All of these qualities in one program, located in the most wonderful part of the country make coming to Kaiser Oakland a decision I have never once regretted and never will.