Emergency Medicine Residency Curriculum & Rotations
The program is designed with your success in mind, offering tailored training and flexibility to help you achieve your career goals.
Our curriculum provides outstanding, broad-based clinical training while allowing you room to customize your education to fit your personal career interests. With four years to train, you will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of specialties within emergency medicine, building your expertise and marketability.
No two days are exactly alike when you are an emergency medicine resident. Everyone starts out with an orientation month and the schedules will vary from there, with everyone taking the same core rotations but not necessarily in the same order. Our program is structured in blocks. During ED months, you will typically work 18-21 shifts, lasting about 8-10 hours each. Four months are set aside for electives.
For More Information
Curriculum Highlights
- Broad-based clinical training in 3 diverse practice environments.
- Fully integrated 48-month curriculum.
- Choice of Professional Development Track in an emergency medicine specialty.
- Accessible, caring faculty fully invested in your education and success.
- Robust selection of elective opportunities — and resources to create your own.
- Exposure to unique training opportunities, like EC3, MCIRCC, Survival Flight, and global health.
You will formally meet with your advisor at least every 6 months for a semi-annual review of performance and goal setting, including discussions about your individual professional development track plan.
Conferences
Emergency medicine residents have scheduled conferences for 5 hours on Wednesdays. All residents are released from the ED to attend.
About half of our residents come in with a clear vision of what their career is going to be, and the other half comes in fairly undifferentiated and start to define their path over the next couple of years. By the middle of the second year, everyone has a very clear career development plan."
Longitudinal Experiences
Starting as interns, residents participate in extrication training, HVA ride-alongs, and pre-hospital communication training. In later years, residents develop experience in the administrative aspects of EMS including run reviews, education for pre-hospital providers, and regional planning meetings. Residents with a strong interest in pre-hospital care may opt to pursue more advanced training through the EMS Professional Development Track.
Our residents can become physician members of the flight team starting in the second year of the program.
Our residents rotate in the Emergency Critical Care Center starting their 2nd year.
Residents apply for a Professional Development Track after their second year. These tracks offer a unique opportunity to pursue your passion in a specialized area of emergency medicine, developing marketable expertise while you train. Learn more on about our Professional Development Tracks.
Rotations
Below is a sample block schedule for the four years of training:
| Block 1 | Block 2 | Block 3 | Block 4 | Block 5 | Block 6 | Block 7 | Block 8 | Block 9 | Block 10 | Block 11 | Block 12 | Block 13 | |
| Month | 7/1-7/29 | 7/30-8/26 | 8/27-9/23 | 9/24-10/21 | 10/22-11/18 | 11/19-12/16 | 12/17-1/13 | 1/14-2/10 | 2/11-3/10 | 3/11-4/7 | 4/8-5/5 | 5/6-6/2 | 6/3-6/30 |
| Year 1 | Orient ED | ED 0.75 Vac 0.25 | Anes Vac 0.25 | PAAC-CES | ED-US1 | CCU | ED-SJ | ACS/TBICU | ED-UM Vac 0.25 | CCMU | Newborn-OB Ortho | MICU | ED-HMC |
| Year 2 | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | ED-UM/HMC | CES | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | ACS | ED/US2 | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | ED-SJ/HMC | CES | ED-UM | PICU | ED-UM | Elective |
| Year 3 | SICU | ED-UM | ED-UM/HMC | ED-UM Vac 0.25 | ED-UM | ED-SJ | ED-UM | ED-SJ | ED-UM | Elective | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | HMC-Trauma ACS | ED-UM Vac 0.25 |
| Year 4 | Elective | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | ED-UM | ED-UM/HMC | ED-SJ | ED-UM | ED-SJ Vac 0.25 | Elective | ED-UM | ED-UM/HMC | ED-SJ | ED-SJ | ED-UM |
PAAC-CES = Pediatric ED at Trinity Health & UM
US1 = Ultrasound 1
CCU = Cardiac Critical Care Unit at Trinity Health
SJ = Trinity Health Ann Arbor (Formerly St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor)
ACS = Acute Care Surgery (aka General Surgery)
TBICU = Trauma Burn ICU
CCMU = Critical Care Medical Unit (aka MICU at UM)
HMC = Hurley Medical Center
Elective time may be utilized in a longitudinal fashion rather than en bloc to facilitate participation in appropriate career development activities.
With advance approval, 1 month of elective time may be moved into EM3 year from EM4 in order to facilitate career development activities. ^EM3 0.5 month elective defaults to radiology but may be used for other electives as desired & approved by the PD.
Vacation: 4 weeks per PGY year
- EM1 – 2 weeks total during ED months (excluding block 1). 1 week during CCU/Cards consults. 1 week during Anesthesia.
- EM2, EM3, EM4 – 4 weeks total during ED months
Fourth-Year
Fewer than one in four emergency medicine residency programs nationwide include a built-in fourth year of training. At first glance, an extra year might seem like time away from starting your career — but in reality, it’s one of the most valuable parts of your training.
Our integrated 48-month program gives you the time and space to grow into a confident, versatile physician. You’ll rotate through a wide variety of clinical environments and gain deeper experience in critical areas like pediatric emergency medicine and critical care. By the time you reach your senior year, you’ll be practicing with clinical independence while still having the safety net of a supportive training structure. You’ll also take on meaningful leadership roles — supervising interns, managing department flow, and shaping the learning environment.
The fourth year isn’t just about clinical skills — it’s about career development. The longitudinal opportunities and mentorship built into this year give you the tools to stand out, whether you’re applying for the most competitive fellowships or pursuing your dream job right out of residency.
Electives
During five months of elective time, residents can pursue interests in everything from observational medicine to difficult airway management to dentistry to ophthalmology. New electives are developed every year. There are a large number of electives that fit many people’s needs, however you are welcome to propose a new elective and receive full support and resources to do so.
Elective examples include:
Rural Medicine
- Hancock Emergency Medicine (rural experience based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)
- Big Sky, Montana
Global Health
- Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative
Clinical Training
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine mini-fellowship month
- Ultrasound
- Toxicology (through Detroit Poison Center)
- Dentistry
Global Health
The U-M Medical School has long-standing partnerships with health providers and institutions around the world. Residents are welcome to submit global health project ideas and objectives to our Graduate Medical Education office to get exposure to an exciting and inspiring practice environment they would not otherwise see. Our Department of Emergency Medicine partners with the Center for Global Health and the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center to provide support for the Ghana Emergency Medicine Collaborative.
Other countries our residents have worked in:
- Haiti
- India
- Ecuador
- Indonesia
- South Africa
- South Korea
Our Graduate Raves
The fourth year at UofM is truly utilized as an opportunity to help you find your path in emergency medicine. There is a big focus on allowing you to carve out your niche within the field and you get extensive support and the flexibility in your training to make this happen."
