Chattanooga Emergency Medicine Curriculum

Our three-year program trains emergency physicians to practice in any environment, however challenging, from a Level I trauma and tertiary referral center to the smallest rural and critical access emergency departments. Residents take ownership of their patients from their first shift, managing them from arrival to disposition with faculty backup at hand. As they progress, they take on greater leadership, running the department, directing resuscitations, and teaching junior residents and students. The year is divided into 13 four-week blocks, with emergency medicine at the core of every year, and every rotation has written goals and objectives specific to each PGY level.

PGY-1: Foundations

• Emergency Medicine (8 blocks)
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine (1 block)
• Trauma Surgery (1 block): the trauma floor, ED trauma consults, and the trauma team at trauma activations
• Medical Intensive Care (1 block)
• Anesthesia and Ultrasound (1 block): airway management in the operating room and dedicated point-of-care ultrasound training
• Obstetrics and Gynecology (1 block)

PGY-2: Expanding Responsibility

• Emergency Medicine, adult and pediatric (10 blocks)
• Pediatric Intensive Care (1 block)
• Orthopedics and EMS (1 block)
• Selective (1 block): additional ICU, rural emergency medicine, or another experience approved by the Program Director

PGY-3: Leading the Department

• Emergency Medicine, adult and pediatric (9 blocks)
• Community Emergency Medicine (1 block)
• Trauma Intensive Care (1 block): senior resident in the trauma ICU
• Cardiac Intensive Care (1 block)
• Elective (1 block)

Pediatric emergency care continues throughout all three years, alongside our dedicated pediatric rotations.