About Our Program

Emergency MedYou will learn the specialty of Emergency Medicine through a variety of experiences – through patient care in both the Emergency Department and off-service rotations, and through a broad array of didactic experiences.

  • Twenty-two of your 36 months of training are spent rotating in the Emergency Department and on other EM supervised rotations (i.e. Administration/EMS, LifeFlight), with the remainder on other rotations from the Departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Trauma, Neurology, Orthopedics, Anesthesia and Radiology.
  • Residents are actively involved the care of their patients, and assume increasingly independent responsibility for their patients and for the Emergency Department as they progress through their training.
  • Residents actively participate in our busy LifeFlight Helicopter Program. They begin to fly early in their training (after completing PGY-1 Life Flight training), and have dedicated flight time during PGY-2 and PGY-3.

Emergency residents

Other Educational Experiences

  • Attendance at our weekly Emergency Medicine Conferences – five didactic hours on Thursday mornings.
  • Monthly journal club at a faculty member’s home
  • Strong emphasis on Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Residents are given extensive feedback on their performance and meet with the Program Director, their advisor, and other faculty several times a year.
  • Each PGY-3 resident gives one Grand Rounds presentation on topics from the Emergency Medicine Core Curriculum.
  • Residents also present follow-up case conferences (one per year for each PGY), and PGY-3s present one Critically Appraised Topic (CAT).
  • Opportunities to provide educational conferences for pre-hospital care providers in the community
  • Residents are actively involved in Special Events coverage, providing medical care at events such as the Gus Macker Basketball Tournament, area soccer tournaments, and other community sporting events (residents are paid for their participation).

Residents are well prepared for the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) Certification Exam. We have had very high pass rates on both the written and oral examinations in the past few years.

Residents participate in regularly scheduled Oral Board simulations during all three years of training.
All senior residents participate in the yearly Statewide Senior Illinois Emergency Medicine Residents Oral Board Exam Simulation in Chicago.

We have developed a Simulation Curriculum which involves the residents in a variety of simulation experiences to enhance their education and training. This takes place a Jump Simulation, a state-of-the-art medical training facility, research hub, and an international leader in simulation and innovation. EM residents will be regularly using Jump for parts of their training.