Emergency Medicine Residency FAQ

Is this a 3 or 4 year program?

  • PGY 1-3, founded in 1986

What is the number of emergency medicine residents per post-graduate year?

  • 18


How many patient visits?

 

  • 145,000 patient visits (95,000 Adults; 50,000 Pediatric)


How many beds?

 

  • The downtown campus has 1,251 patient beds with 75 adult / 33 pediatric beds in the Emergency Departments


How much time is devoted to EM vs Off-Service months?

 

  • 23 blocks of Emergency Medicine (including 1 block teaching resident and 1 block community ED); 3 blocks elective and 12 blocks of off-service rotations
  • PGY 1 Orientation


What are the roles / expectations of the residents in the ED?

 

  • There is graded responsibility for residents at each level. Coupled with this graded responsibility is a graduated degree of autonomy. Trauma alerts are handled by PGY 3 residents. Major resuscitations are managed by all residents. 


What formal didactics are offered?

 

  • Didactics are offered twice a week for a total of 5 hours weekly. Approximately 2/3 of presentations are by our EM attending physicians or guest faculty, and 1/3 by emergency medicine residents


Can residents moonlight?

 

  • Multiple in-house moonlighting opportunities exist for PGY2 and PGY3 residents. Moonlighting shifts are available in the low-acuity Flex portion of ORMC Emergency Department as well as Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital and supervised by our attendings. 


How are residents evaluated?

 

  • Residents are evaluated at the end of each rotation. Bi-annual formal evaluations are conducted according to RRC standards. Residents are evaluated and develop based on attending, mentor, patient, and ancillary staff evaluations


How many letters of recommendation should I submit? Is a CORD letter required?

 

  • 3 letters of recommendation are recommended. The Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE) CORD format is highly suggested, which can be found at www.cordem.org.


Does the program accept passing COMLEX scores in lieu of USMLE scores for osteopathic applicants?

 

  • No, the program requires USMLE scores.


How much elective/vacation time is there?

 

  • 3 blocks of elective time (1 block PGY2, 2 blocks PGY3) - sample electives: ultrasound, research, Hawaii Community Medicine, ophthalmology, radiology, administration, and others
  • There are 4 weeks of vacation yearly, taken in 1-week blocks. This includes one week during Christmas or New Year


What volunteer/community service opportunities are there?

 

  • There are 2 locally organized community service organizations with regular resident participation: Shepard's Hope and the Coalition for the Homeless


Is there a research requirement?

 

  • Each resident is required to produce at least one scholarly project per RRC standards. 


What fellowship opportunities are there?

 

  • Currently we offer fellowships in Administration/Research, Emergency Medical Services, Pediatrics, Simulation, and Ultrasound


Is pediatric training integrated/dispersed throughout the 3 years?

 

  • Pediatric exposure is incorporated into 20-25% of each EM month. During the PGY1 year there is a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Medicine month. PGY2 residents have a one month rotation in the PICU / NICU.


How well respected is the EM program in the hospital?

 

  • The EM residency is well established and has existed since 1986. It has full departmental status. Many of the EM faculty hold key administration positions in the hospital system, including the Chief Medical Officer for ORMC and Orlando Health’s Chief of Corporate Research Operations. The residents are well known for being hard-working, intelligent, and easy to work with, which earns the program a great deal of respect from other services.


What are the boards pass rates?

 

  • The program historically has a 99+% 1st time EM board certification passage rate