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Emergency Medicine Curriculum

Residents rotate through a yearly 'Block' schedule which is a four-week period for a total of 13 blocks in a 12-month academic year outlined in the sections below. 

  • July – Orientation
  • Emergency Medicine at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 4 blocks (includes 1 month of nights)
  • Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona – 1 Block
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center – 1 block
  • Medical ICU at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 1 block
  • Neurology at Barrow’s Neurological Institute, Ortho-Sports Medicine – 3 weeks, 2 weeks, respectively
  • Coronary Care Unit at Banner University Medical Center – 3 weeks
  • Anesthesia & Ultrasound – 1 block
  • OB/GYN at St. Joseph’s Hospital/Dignity Health – 2 weeks
  • Elective  – 1 block
  • Vacation – 3 weeks
  • Emergency Medicine at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 6 blocks (includes 1 block of nights)
  • Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona – 1 block
  • Emergency Medicine at Banner University Medical Center – 1 block
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Phoenix Children’s Hospital – 1 block
  • Toxicology at Banner Poison Center & EMS at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 1 block
  • Burn Intensive Care Unit at The Arizona Burn Center – 1 block
    Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 1 block
  • Elective – 1 block
  • Vacation – 4 weeks
  • Emergency Medicine at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 7 blocks (includes 1 block of nights)
  • Emergency Medicine at Banner University Medical Center – 1 block
  • Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona – 1 block
  • Emergency Medicine at St. Joeseph’s Hospital – 1 block
  • Pediatric Anesthesia, Ped ED at Cardon Children’s Hospital – 1 block (1 week, 3 weeks, respectively)
  • Medical ICU at Valleywise Health Medical Center – 1 block
  • Elective  – 1 block
  • Vacation – 4 weeks

1. Rural Medicine with Indian Health Services

Rotate at Indian Health Services Medical Centers:

Whiteriver and Fort Defiance
– Rural hospitals dedicated to serving Apache and Navajo County
– Opportunity to practice in resource-limited area and learn more about the Indian Health services, the people they serve, and future job opportunities
– Ability to explore the beautiful area and get outdoors

2. Wilderness Medicine

Run by Dr. Comp, the Wilderness elective lets you choose your own adventure:

– Opportunities to take AWLS course

– Weekly treks

– Option to focus on a specific area (dive, high altitude, disaster, etc) and plan training around that

– Teaching opportunities in the department and with medical students

– Curated reading list

3. Critical Care at Banner Estrella Hospital

Interested in more critical care experience? Spend your elective month in the ICU at Banner Estrella hospital. You’ll get to work with very sick patients and great faculty. Lots of opportunities to practice central lines, ventilator management, pressor titration, and many other critical care medicine skills. Banner Estrella is located in West Phoenix and serves 33,000 inpatients annually. This rotation is available to all classes.

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EMS workers with patient

The requirements of this rotation are somewhat flexible, and based upon the interest of the rotator. There are several potential opportunities to choose from:

  • Ride-alongs with Phoenix Fire Department
  • Fly-alongs with fixed wing or helicopter air crews
  • Quality assurance activities with Air Methods (flight) or Phoenix Fire (ground)
  • Providing Continuing Education to Phoenix Fire or one of the various air crews in rural Arizona -Shadowing in Dispatch
  • Technical rescue training
  • Tactical EMS training
  • Advanced wilderness life support courses
  • Urban search and rescue training
  • Community paramedicine
  • Incident command center

The advanced emergency ultrasound elective is a 4-week rotation offered to PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents. We have developed a novel structured curriculum based on a flipped classroom model with the incorporation of up-to-date online content, including: podcasts, journal articles, blogs and e-books. Content will include advanced echocardiography, ultrasound guided resuscitation and procedures. Rotators will have multiple opportunities each week to obtain hands on bedside teaching and image review with ultrasound faculty. The advanced emergency ultrasound elective will allow resident rotators to solidify their knowledge of core concepts and applications and prepare them for the future of emergency ultrasound. 

Dedicated Research time with the core research faculty and support staff. See the research page for more information.

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