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 EM blocks include adult and pediatric shifts, and there is a dedicated pediatric EM block in the 3rd year at INOVA Fairfax.

Below is the breakdown by PGY level with a brief description from one of our residents.

PGY -1

  • This is a week-long course when you arrive getting you acclimated to Charlottesville and the hospital system

  • During these 5 blocks you will work in our ED. Approximately 17-19 shifts a month. Shifts are 10 hours during the day and 12 overnight. There are some 11 hour shifts in our rapid medical evaluation pod.

  • This rotation is with our trauma surgeons in the trauma ICU. You are paired with a PGY-3 EM resident and a PGY-2 surgery resident. You respond to trauma alerts in the ED during the day while managing the acutely ill patients in the ICU with the trauma team.

  • Medical ICU

    During this 4 week rotation you work with an upper level IM resident in the Medical ICU. You get to care for acutely ill patients, work on procedural skills, and build relationships with the Medicine residents and Critical Care fellows. After this rotation you will feel more comfortable caring for the sickest patients in the ED.

    - Gabriella Dean PGY-1

  • You spend time with the anesthesiologists in the endoscopy suite for intubations. By the end of this rotation you should have your required amount of intubations to meet your residency requirement and the experience to perform them in the ED.

  • On this rotation we are assigned to a gen med team and also sometime cover nights. It’s a great way to build relationships with the residents you will be working closely with the next 3 years and understand what happens to our patients after they are admitted.

  • Spend 2 weeks with our ultrasound faculty doing scanning shifts, procedures in the cadaver lab and image review

  • Spend 2 weeks doing ridealongs with Charlottesville Fire, Green County Rescue and Pegasus Air. Yes, you get to ride in the helicopter.

  • Rotate through our Toxicology department at the Blue Ridge Poison Center. Daily lectures and presentations, seeing toxicology consults and going on the occasional nature hike.

PGY -2

  • You start upper level shifts at the start of 2nd year. Your shifts are now 8 hours each. Expect 17-19 shifts per 4 weeks.

  • Work as a member of the Surgical ICU team that primarily takes care of critically ill post-operative patients. These include general surgery, orthopedic surgery, spine surgery, plastic surgery and transplant surgery.

  • Rotate at our community EM site at UVA Health Culpeper Medical Center

  • Rotate with OBGYN Labor and Delivery for 2 weeks at UVA to get your required amount of deliveries.

  • 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.

PGY -3

  • Continue your emergency medicine training as an upper level. Start new pre-attending shifts where you supervise over junior residents and are responsible for a pod on your own.

  • Spend a month rotating at the Pediatrics ED at INOVA Children’s Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia

  • Return to the Trauma ICU as an upper level. Shifts are normally split evenly between days and nights. You respond to alpha/beta trauma alerts. As the upper level you are also the procedure resident and are expected to get first attempt at all urgent procedures. While on night shift you are the sole resident responsible for the Trauma ICU.

  • Four weeks in the Pediatric ICU, split between the cardiac and medicine ICU services. Gain experience in taking care of and doing procedures on critically ill children. Generally the schedule is 3 weeks of days and 1 week of nights.

  • Additional elective time to pursue your interests.

  • Spend 1 month working with the orthopedic residents on interesting emergency dept. consults.