A brief summary of our three years in Charlottesville

All residents will become certified in ACLS, ATLS, and PALS during their residency orientation period. Each year is broken down into 13 four-week blocks.

All Emergency Medicine blocks include adult and pediatric shifts. There is a dedicated pediatric EM block in the 3rd year at INOVA Fairfax.

PGY -1

  • Before you start clinical work, you’ll complete a week-long orientation course to prepare you for your first shifts in the ED.

  • During these five blocks, you’ll work in our ED, averaging 17–19 shifts per month. Day shifts are 10 hours, overnight shifts are 12 hours, and you’ll sometimes have 11-hour shifts in our Rapid Medical Evaluation pod.

  • On this rotation you’ll work with our trauma surgeons in the Trauma ICU. You’ll be paired with a PGY-3 EM resident and a PGY-2 Surgery resident. You’ll respond to trauma alerts in the ED during the day while managing the acutely ill patients in the ICU with the trauma team.

  • During this four-week rotation, you’ll work alongside an upper level IM resident in the Medical ICU. You’ll care for acutely ill patients, work on procedural skills, and build relationships with the Medicine residents and Critical Care fellows. After this rotation you’ll feel much more confident caring for the sickest patients in the ED.

  • You’ll spend time with the anesthesiologists in the endoscopy suite and focus on intubations. By the end of this rotation, you should have your required number of intubations to meet your residency requirement and the experience to perform them in the ED.

  • You’ll spend two weeks with our ultrasound faculty doing scanning shifts, procedures in the cadaver lab, and image review.

  • For two weeks, you’ll ride along with Charlottesville Fire, Green County Rescue, and Pegasus Air. Yes, you get to ride in the helicopter!

  • Rotate through our Medical Toxicology department at the Blue Ridge Poison Center. You’ll attend daily lectures and presentations, see toxicology consults, and go on the occasional nature hike.

  • An opportunity to explore your interests. Common electives include ultrasound, cardiology, procedures. People have also used this time to pursue global health electives such as trips to Kenya, Hawaii and Mexico. Forms needed to go on electives are located here.

PGY -2

  • You’ll start upper-level shifts early in your second year. Your shifts are now 8 hours each, and you’ll average 17-19 shifts per four weeks as you continue to build your EM skills.

  • You’ll join our Surgical ICU team, primarily caring for critically ill post-operative patients. These include general surgery, orthopedic surgery, spine surgery, plastic surgery and transplant surgery.

  • You’ll rotate at our local community EM site at Augusta Health Medical Center in Fishersville, VA.

  • You’ll spend two weeks on Labor & Delivery with UVA OBGYN, rounding out your required delivery experience.

  • Additional elective time to pursue your interests.

    Residents have used this time to pursue global health electives such as trips to Kenya, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Mexico - to name a few! Forms needed to go on electives are located here.

PGY -3

  • You’ll continue your Emergency Medicine training as an upper-level — taking pre-attending shifts where you supervise junior residents and lead a pod on your own.

  • You’ll spend a month at INOVA Children’s Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, rotating in the Pediatric ED.

  • You’ll return to the Trauma ICU as an upper-level. Shifts are normally split evenly between days and nights. You’ll respond to alpha/beta trauma alerts and you’ll be the procedure resident, expected to get first attempt at all urgent procedures. On nights, you’ll be the sole resident responsible for the Trauma ICU.

  • On this four-week rotation in the Pediatric ICU, you’ll work across cardiac and medicine ICU services — gaining experience in critical care for children. The schedule is typically three weeks of days and one week of nights.

  • Additional elective time to pursue your interests.

    Residents have used this time to pursue global health electives such as trips to Kenya, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Mexico - to name a few! Forms needed to go on electives are located here.

  • You’ll spend a month working with orthopedic residents on interesting ED consults and cases.