Our curriculum aims to develop a resident’s capacity to provide effective and efficient medical care to high acuity, medically complex patients under the guidance of expert faculty. Through immersive and varied clinical experiences, residents gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to assume greater supervisory and care team leadership responsibilities as they progress through training.
We believe that training should be tailored to each resident’s unique needs, interests and goals. To this end, we invest significantly in resources and mentorship to ensure residents receive exceptional training that fosters personal and professional fulfillment while preparing them for successful careers. Our residents graduate as well-rounded physicians who can thrive in all types of practice environments.
Our program utilizes a block schedule consisting of 13 four-week blocks (view an example schedule). Residents receive four weeks of vacation annually, taken as one-week blocks. Residents generally work nine-hour shifts with the last hour being clean up and sign-out with the oncoming team.
PGY 1
Year one builds a strong knowledge base of critical skills related to the assessment and management of the acutely ill patient, rounded out by broad exposure to specialty care and off-service experiences.
- Orientation: First 2 weeks
- Main ED: 4 blocks*
- Veterans Hospital ED: 1 block
- Pediatric ED: 1 dedicated block
- Anes/Ultrasound: 1 block
- Cardiology: 1 block
- Medical ICU: 1 block
- Pediatric ICU: 1 block
- ED/Ortho: 1 block
- Ob-Gyn: 1 block
- EMS: 0.5 blocks
- Trauma: 0.5 blocks
PGY 2
Year two advances resident leadership and procedural skills and refines overall efficiency. Residents explore career pathways through an elective rotation and integrated pediatric and community shifts.
- Main ED: 7 blocks*
- Admin/ED: 1 block
- Community ED: 1 block
- Elective: 1 block
- Medical ICU: 1 block
- SICU: 1 block
- Trauma: 1 block
*Integrated shifts in Pediatric & Veterans Hospital EDs
PGY 3
In year three, residents further develop leadership, teamwork and medical management skills during capstone experiences, and have ample flexibility to explore niche interests.
- Main ED: 9.5 blocks*
- Community ED: 1 block
- Admin: 1 block
- Elective: 1 block
- MICU: 1 block
*Includes longitudinal shifts as trauma resuscitation leader & pre-attending
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PGY 1 curriculum
Centers on Building Foundations: Intern year includes six blocks in the University Hospital ED, where residents train in our two-pod model alongside EM faculty and fellows, and rotate through trauma, cardiology, anesthesia, and the medical ICU to build core specialty knowledge.
Early in residency, interns complete a hands-on ultrasound workshop followed by a dedicated ultrasound block. Training then continues throughout all three years, with asynchronous didactics that maximize bedside learning with faculty.
PGY 2 curriculum
Centers on Critical Care & Exploration: The PGY 2 year focuses on implementing core knowledge from year one as residents assume leadership roles in complex resuscitations and increase their procedural skills and overall efficiency. Residents also begin exploring career pathways through their first elective rotation.
PGY 3 curriculum
Centers on Independent Practice: In their third year, residents gain experience in addressing operational challenges, managing department flow, and advanced patient care. The Trauma Resuscitation Leader role offers PGY 3 residents the opportunity to directly lead cross-functional trauma teams and develop confidence in managing resuscitations in critical cases.
Electives
Residents have two dedicated elective months to explore subspecialties in emergency medicine. Starting in PGY 1, they can pursue shorter elective experiences during ED blocks. Each learning pathway is tailored with guidance from program directors and a coach-mentor.
Electives may follow established tracks or be custom-designed. Common electives include global health, EMS and Med Flight, disaster medicine, ultrasound, teaching, critical care, anesthesia, burn, palliative care, sports medicine, and social emergency medicine and advocacy.
“I love the ability to customize elective shifts during my EM months to fit around my personal career goals.” –Haley Taormina, MD, ’22
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Core EMS Rotation
In PGY 1, residents complete a required two-week EMS rotation. They ride along with paramedics from Madison Fire Department, regional EMS services, and UW Health’s Pediatric Neonatal Critical Care Transport Team. They also receive FEMA incident management training and shadow 911 dispatchers at the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center.
This early exposure helps residents explore whether to pursue an fellowship in EMS.
Prehospital Clinical Concentration
The Prehospital Division offers a Prehospital Clinical Concentration for residents interested in developing leadership and scholarship in EMS.
Residents may opt in at the start of PGY 2 and are paired with an EMS medical director who serves as a career mentor throughout residency. Participants also have the unique opportunity to serve as a Resident Assistant Medical Director (RAMD) for one or more EMS agencies, gaining firsthand experience in the administrative role of an EMS physician.
In PGY 2, residents focus on building relationships with agency directors and EMS providers while assisting with medical director duties. By PGY 3, they take on greater leadership responsibility and help supervise incoming PGY-2 RAMDs.
Participants commit elective time to prehospital activities, attend monthly meetings, and complete a scholarly project on a prehospital topic. Those interested in helicopter EMS may devote elective time to UW Health Med Flight.
Doc Ops Experience
Residents are first introduced to field EMS through a half-day immersion called “Doc Ops.” Interns step into the role of local firefighters and paramedics by joining training exercises such as live fire drills, vehicle extrications, and other simulated emergencies during residency orientation. The experience gives residents a deeper appreciation for the challenges faced by emergency responders and helps strengthen communication, teamwork, and patient care.
Few residency programs in the U.S. have the resources and fire-based EMS partnerships to offer such a unique training. We’re proud to provide this formative experience early in residency.
Global Health
Residents can participate in a global health elective during their PGY 2 or PGY 3 years through one of our existing partnerships in Guatemala, Rwanda, Uganda, or Indian Health Services in Gallup, New Mexico. Residents with ties to other areas have developed individual elective experiences, such as in rural Alaska and Nepal. Elective experiences often include work in clinical care, capacity building, teaching and/or research.
Residents can apply for funding support through the UW Health Graduate Medical Education Office, and the Department of Emergency Medicine may also provide additional support.
Our global health director, Dr. Jessica Schmidt, leads an interdisciplinary Global Health Pre-departure Course at UW Health designed to prepare postgraduate trainees for their time abroad.
“We see a great variety of cases and really high acuity at UW. Get ready to feel uncomfortable early on, seek out opportunities to strengthen knowledge gaps, and hit the ground running from day one but know that you always have a senior resident and attending by your side.”
– Sam Wing, MD, MS, ‘25
“Intern year off-service rotations provide invaluable opportunities to translate EM experiences into new clinical environments and bring lessons learned from those environments back into the ED. I was surprised at how quickly I adapted to previously intimidating clinical scenarios, and how much I learned in a short time working under our incredible Emergency Medicine and off-service faculty and fellows.”
– Tad Schmitt, MD, ’22
“I have been genuinely impressed with the professionalism of our consulting services, which have been friendly, collaborative, and patient-oriented, rather than stereotypically terse or prickly as I was expecting. This was a very pleasant surprise as I started residency here.”
– Mitch Butterbaugh, MD, Class of 2026
“I chose UW because of the amazing opportunity to train at a top academic center that offers incredible exposure to global health and social emergency medicine. I was drawn to the supportive and inclusive environment during my interview day and felt confident that this program would help me become a more globally minded, culturally humble, and socially aware physician.”
– Matt Huston, MD, Class of 2028
At UW, residents can expect to experience training that is
rigorous but also supportive and collaborative.
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#1 trauma referral center for the region
Three dedicated trauma bays at University Hospital bustle with near-constant activity.
As the primary trauma referral center for much of the region, our residents see the sickest of the sick and learn to function seamlessly as a team with surgery, anesthesia, orthopedics, and vascular and neurosurgery teams to rapidly intervene to prevent morbidity and mortality in all types of blunt and penetrating traumatic injury. Patient acuity is high, with a quarter of ED patients being admitted to critical care units.
High acuity, medically complex cases
The department’s providers deliver true emergency care as part of an operationally efficient health system. More than around 90 percent of the patient market is insured, and, therefore, lower-acuity patients have robust urgent care centers as alternative options to the emergency department.
At the University Hospital ED, Emergency Severity Index 1, 2, and 3 patients dominate patient visits. Because nearlyhalf of inpatient admissions are generated from our EDs, performance of these units is a key driver in the overall success of the academic medical center.
Residents have integrated experiences in the community ED setting during their second and third years to round out their exposure to cases and case loads. Here they continue to work one-on-one with faculty while gaining significant independent clinical responsibilities.
Advanced critical care and prehospital capabilities
Through UW Health Med Flight, we receive critically ill patients from across the region and frequently transport patients between facilities or from the scene of their accident or injury. Our ground ambulances transport patients of any age and are equipped as mobile ICU/NICU and organ donation transport programs.
We have a prominent representation of critical care faculty and are continuing to involve critical care interested residents in our robust research projects and our CME-level critical case conferences early. Our EM-CC faculty developed one of the nation’s leading Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) programs at UW Health, with active hospital-based and out-of-hospital services.
Referrals and transfers from quarternary care
Our clinical learning environment is enriched by patients referred and transferred for the quaternary care provided at UW Health, including complex burn care, neuroendovascular stroke intervention, transplant, pulmonary hypertension, VAD, TAVR, and CAR-T to name a few.
Pediatric emergency medicine
Our pediatric ED cares for approximately 17,000 pediatric patients annually—many with high acuity—and is staffed by a knowledgeable, growing group of fellowship-trained Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) faculty. A dedicated team of specialized pediatric nurses and respiratory therapists also staff pediatric ED alongside 24/7 child life, pharmacy and social work services, with the department having a strong, collaborative relationship with pediatric/neonatal critical care transport teams.
Our pediatric emergency department is high-volume with acutely sick patients and no PEM fellow, giving residents many opportunities at procedures with this population.
Point-of-care ultrasound
Our Division of Emergency Ultrasound faculty are routinely identified as the point-of-care ultrasound experts at UW, with other specialties modeling our clinical and educational operations. And beyond core ultrasound faculty, almost all DEM faculty have active ultrasound privileges.
We consider practical training in emergency clinical ultrasound to be among the foundational components of residency, so we invest in a strong ultrasound curriculum and incorporate this training into clinical care. We have seven clinical ultrasound machines, which help build ultrasound expertise instead of spending time searching for “the machine.” Every scan performed by residents is reviewed for QA purposes, and we have three high-fidelity simulators.
We also offer a competitive, accredited advanced emergency medicine ultrasound fellowship designed to train newly graduated resident physicians to be expert sonographers, as well as leaders in point-of-care ultrasound education, administration, research, and global health applications.
Expanding ED footprint
Emergency visits at UW Health have been increasing markedly over the last few years. To meet this growing demand, construction is underway on considerable ED expansions at both University Hospital and East Madison Hospital, reflecting the institution’s recognition of the critical impact of emergency services on operational efficiencies within the health system.
The plans include a new six-story structure added to University Hospital housing 22 emergency department rooms and 22 flexible care beds, in addition to 48 new inpatient rooms. East Madison Hospital will add 20 emergency department rooms and four care rooms that can be shared between the emergency department and medical imaging.