Connecting to our Teaching Mission: A Conversation with Three UCSF Learners

To help us connect to UCSF’s teaching mission, Clare Shinnerl, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Life Services, facilitated a discussion with three learners who shared their journey, what they value about UCSF and how we can support them. "Learners define UCSF as a university--as an academic medical center as an academic dental clinic--and without them UCSF would just be a regular company or a regular hospital or clinic,” says Clare. Read more below find out more about students and trainees at UCSF, plus meet three learners who share their background, why they choose their field and what they value about UCSF 

Our deep gratitude to Simran Pawar, International Dental Pathway (DDS), School of Dentistry; Marc Pérez, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Resident, School of Nursing; and Becky Satty, Pediatrics Medical Resident, School of Medicine for sharing their stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UCSF Learner Statistics


 

 

Simran Pawar aspired to become a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) when she joined UCSF’s School of Dentistry last summer. Originally from India, she earned her bachelor’s in dental surgery and practiced for three years there. About her field:  
 

Dentistry is about oral health care, and mouth problems are connected to your entire body. I love the dentistry profession because I love art, and I feel like we’re doing a certain kind of art by giving smiles to a patient to make them beautiful and build their confidence. We are doctors and artists. We give them their smiles back.

Simran Pawar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marc Pérez was a healthcare administrator for about 15 years, when he felt he wasn’t having enough of an impact on the patient side. He thought mental health was important and after a stint in individual and group therapy and a sabbatical, he went into nursing school and focused on psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, currently psychiatric nurse practitioner resident at UCSF’s School of Nursing. About his field:   

Mental Health is our operating system, a key part of our lives.  We’ve gone through global trauma with the pandemic. Not just a public health crisis but a public mental health crisis because of isolation, loss of human interactions and community. It's so important to look at mental health.

Marc Pérez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Becky Satty finished her MD on the East Coast and is now doing her pediatric medical residency at the School of Medicine. Before medical school, she spent two years as an AmeriCorps volunteer in an elementary school in the South Bronx, which drew her to the importance of child health. About her field:   

At the adult clinics in medical school, I would see all these chronic problems. I wanted to try to intervene as early as possible. For me, intervening with children and getting control of their asthma or obesity when they are still able to be molded and working with the parents seemed like an important use of my time.

Becky Satty 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

5 Things Learners Value About UCSF  

  1. UCSF’s collaborative environment
    “UCSF allows for interdepartmental work and collaboration. It takes away the traditional hierarchies. Putting ourselves into the other person's shoes really helps because sometimes we forget that all our work is a means to helping our community and our patients.” 
  2. FAS Services  
    “We really value everything you do, especially when you collaborate, like when finance, operations, IT and security work together. IT for telehealth support and medical record assistance and troubleshooting, police department for mental health assistance and of course Facilities.”   
  3. Anything that saves time and administrative burden  
    “The more we can streamline and remove the administrative burdens from the front end, ultimately the better for the patient because that’s why we are all here.” 
  4. Non-email communication   
    “We are very short of time and the only time we check email is after coming home from school, after 6pm.”  
  5. Returning face-to-face  
    “The social aspect of not being able to see your co-residents or friends during this training process is hard because you spend so much time at work and it's a very stressful environment. It means a lot to us to get back in person, feed people dinner again and recreate that sense of community”