Clinical Curriculum

R1 Year

The R1 year is structured to provide our residents with a diverse and comprehensive experience allowing for a strong clinical foundation and knowledge base to build upon. This begins with “Intern Bootcamp”—a unique two-week program that orients our interns to our two home hospitals (Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center and Olive View-UCLA Medical Center), complemented with core lectures, procedure skill building and introductory shifts. Our interns spend a total of 26 weeks in the Emergency Department throughout their first year. Close faculty supervision and clinical teaching give our interns the opportunity to pick up even the highest acuity patients right from the start. Interns will also rotate through various medical, surgical, and intensive care services, where they have the opportunity to learn from leaders in these fields, fostering professional relationships and friendships with physicians whom they will be working closely throughout the rest of residency.

R2 Year

The R2 year is focused on the mastery of caring for critically ill patients, becoming more efficient in the Emergency Department, and developing expertise in advanced procedures. The R2s run their own medical resuscitations and get priority in more advanced procedures, such as chest tubes, procedural sedation, and central venous access. These experiences are bolstered by two weeks at Antelope Valley Hospital—a haven for procedures, critical traumas and resuscitations. During their ICU months, the R2s function as seniors and code leaders. These ICU rotations are consistently regarded as invaluable learning experiences. R2 year is when our residents engage in learning about the social determinants of health, structural violence, and caring for our most vulnerable patients through the Social Emergency Medicine rotation. This year also provides the opportunity to work with the varied and high acuity pediatric population at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. During the year, the residents gain some elective time during which they use to start developing their interests or advance their clinical skills. At the end of this year, the second year residents are well prepared to handle most emergency situations.

R3 Year

The R3 year is when our residents become true experts in Emergency Medicine. As seniors, they learn how to efficiently function and oversee the Emergency Department. R3s mentor and teach those junior to them, whether it is supervising junior residents on procedures or taking presentations from medical students. During the third year, there is an emphasis on autonomy and dedicated training time in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (at CHLA) and fast paced Community Emergency Medicine (at Antelope Valley Hospital, where residents are the “go-to person” for all procedures, traumas and codes). A dedicated toxicology rotation is incorporated into the third year, which is led by our toxicology faculty group. Finally, the third year provides six weeks of elective time allowing our residents to further explore and develop their passions and areas of interest in Emergency Medicine. Examples of some popular electives include: EMS, Aeromedical Operations, Medical Education, Sports Medicine, and Global Health.

R4 Year

The R4 year is constructed to allow our “super seniors” the freedom to pursue and develop their individual interests, while also providing a high degree of autonomy and graduated responsibility, enabling them to master Emergency Medicine in preparation for independent practice. At our primary training sites, their roles change to a supervisory role with an emphasis on teaching juniors, while also simultaneously overseeing department flow and efficiency. The R4 year incorporates 12 weeks of elective time to allow pursuit of individual passions within the specialty, including opportunities to practice internationally. Some examples of rotations our seniors have done include: Surgical ICU, Wilderness Medicine, Hyperbaric Medicine, EMS, AirSquad Critical Transport, Aerospace Medicine at NASA, Rural Emergency Medicine on the Big Island in Hawaii, and Global Health Rotations in Chile, Kenya, Antarctica, Bali, Burma, Mexico, Guam, and South Africa! 

Teaching resident shifts are another unique component to the 4th year. These shifts are mixed in during EM blocks where our R4s are given a preview of working in an academic ED as an attending. This unique experience allows our R4s to effectively act as the attending to our medical students and junior residents. They play a supervisory role dedicated solely to teaching. It is a favorite experience of both senior residents and their learners! Our diverse curriculum makes our graduates highly desirable candidates nationwide as they have the opportunity to become exceptionally polished and experienced during their 4th year.