Clinical training

The Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, offers a dynamic, comprehensive, and diverse training experience with rotations spanning across a network of multiple world-class institutions in the Phoenix metropolitan area, providing residents with exposure to a broad range of patient populations, clinical environments, and subspecialty care.

Residents gain broad clinical and procedural experience through emergency medicine and off-service rotations across a variety of patient populations and care settings.

Off-service rotations include:

• Critical care medicine, including medical and mixed surgical intensive care units
• Anesthesiology
• Stroke neurology
• Orthopedic consultations
• Sports medicine

Elective and selective opportunities

Residents have access to a wide range of electives and selectives, including selective emergency medicine rotations at sites that align with individual career interests, international health electives, and opportunities to train at Mayo Clinic campuses in Rochester, Minnesota, or Jacksonville, Florida.

Longitudinal experiences

The curriculum integrates longitudinal training in:

• Point-of-care ultrasound, with progressive responsibility and advanced applications throughout residency
• Emergency medical services, including field response, event and race medicine, online medical direction, multi-casualty incident training, and an annual EMS didactic day
• Research, education, and quality improvement
• Career Development Tracks, which provide dedicated time and faculty mentorship to develop expertise aligned with residents’ individual career goals

Didactic training

The Emergency Medicine Core Didactic Conference is held weekly on Wednesday mornings at the Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix site, typically between the hours of 7 a.m. and noon, and consists of high-yield educational experiences. Residents have protected time for attendance at the Emergency Medicine Core Conference during all rotations and are not scheduled for shifts between the hours of 7 a.m. and noon on Wednesdays.

All residents are expected to attend a minimum of 160 hours of didactic sessions annually. The residency offers a minimum of 230 hours of synchronous didactic sessions annually, as well as additional asynchronous educational opportunities.

Didactic experiences are designed to be interactive, offer variable delivery approaches, and include core content structured around the American Board of Emergency Medicine EM Model (which is used to determine content tested on for board certification examinations). Sessions include, but are not limited to, simulation, procedural training, case-based teaching, flipped classroom, game-based learning, experiential learning, spaced repetition learning, in situ simulation, board review preparation, journal club, quality improvement, and well-being-related sessions.

Ultrasound training

Emergency medicine residents receive education in emergency point-of-care ultrasound throughout their residency training. A variety of training experiences are provided to ensure graduates are equipped with the skills needed to integrate POCUS effectively and efficiently into the care they provide to their patients. Ultrasound training begins during the first year of residency and continues until graduation.

PGY-1 overview

PGY-1 residents are introduced to POCUS during the orientation block, where they attend an ultrasound bootcamp to review didactic training and practice hands-on guidance in various core POCUS topics.

During the PGY-1 year, residents have two dedicated weeks that are reserved for building a foundation of knowledge and proficiency in POCUS. This rotation includes online modules, ultrasound scanning shifts, and quality assessment scan review sessions. Residents receive feedback on their scanning performance throughout the rotation.

PGY-2 overview

Residents continue to build the foundation of POCUS through the continued completion of online modules and hands-on practice. One dedicated week is reserved for POCUS, with a focus on continued development in cardiac, abdominal, musculoskeletal, deep-vein thrombosis, biliary, and procedural topics. Advanced sessions on transesophageal echocardiogram and nerve blocks are also provided.

PGY-3 and PGY-4 overview

Senior residents continue to build proficiency in integrating POCUS into clinical practice longitudinally through participation in interactive didactic sessions, implementation of POCUS during emergency medicine shifts, and by mentoring and teaching POCUS skills to junior learners. Residents are able to efficiently incorporate findings from bedside scanning into medical decision making to provide optimal care for patients. Senior residents are expected to teach and support junior residents performing ultrasound scans.

If a resident wishes to complete an ultrasound elective or Career Development Track, advanced training can be tailored to specific interests.

Conferences

Our program supports resident attendance at the following national emergency medicine conferences as a PGY cohort.

PGY-1-4: Regional/National/International conferences for presentation purposes

Residents are encouraged to submit scholarly and research projects to regional, national, and international conferences. Should a resident receive acceptance for presentation of a scholarly project or acceptance to lead/teach an educational session/workshop, Mayo Clinic will support travel and lodging accommodations.

Residents are specifically encouraged to submit work to emergency medicine conferences, including SAEM, AAEM, ACEP, CORD, and AzCEP.

Rising Chiefs PGY-3s: Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine

The CORD Academic Assembly serves as a platform for collaboration, innovation, and professional development within the field of emergency medicine education.

PGY-4s: American College of Emergency Physicians

The ACEP Scientific Assembly is the world's largest emergency medicine conference which features educational sessions, hands-on workshops, and research presentations, along with opportunities to connect and network with peers and industry leaders.

Call frequency

During emergency medicine rotations (4-week blocks), residents will typically work the following shifts/hours:

• PGY-1: 19-20 shifts per block
• PGY-2: 18-19 shifts per block
• PGY-3: 17-18 shifts per block
• PGY-4: 15-16 shifts per block

Shift length ranges from 8-10 hours during rotations (primarily nine hours). Most shifts stop taking new patients two hours before shift end-time and include one hour of overlap for completion of documentation and transition of care. Non-Mayo Clinic and off-service rotations may have varying hours. Work hours are to follow the Mayo Clinic residency work hours and education policy. 

Moonlighting

PGY-3 and PGY-4 residents are permitted to moonlight, based upon the department’s moonlighting policy. 

Mentorship

Our mentorship program is a structured, longitudinal initiative designed to support professional and personal development across all four years of training.  Our mentorship program will be built on the belief that career fulfillment and personal well-being are inseparable and that they both require intentional cultivation. Over the course of four years, residents will move through a developmental arc of orientation, skill building, leadership development and ultimately leading to launch and legacy.

Evaluation

Our residency program follows a comprehensive evaluation process designed to support resident development, ensure progressive growth towards independent practice, and meet all ACGME and institutional GME standards.

Residents are evaluated based on the core ACGME Emergency Medicine Milestones: patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, communication skills, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice. Each rotation includes direct observation, formative feedback, and end-of-rotation written evaluations completed by supervising faculty.

Residents receive structured feedback regularly through multiple avenues that are compiled quarterly into the resident’s portfolio:

• Direct observation. Faculty assess clinical performance in real time, providing immediate teaching and feedback at the bedside.
• Shift evaluations. Clinical teaching faculty complete targeted post-shift evaluations by providing specific, milestone-linked, real-time written feedback after every Mayo Clinic teaching shift for the resident(s) they were supervising. This feedback will be immediately accessible to residents and is expected to be frequently reviewed and applied to improve subsequent clinical shifts.
• End-of-rotation evaluations (all non-Mayo Clinic rotations). Written evaluations summarize performance across the domains of clinical care, procedural skills, professionalism, and teamwork.
• 360 evaluations. Feedback from self, peers, nurses, interdisciplinary staff, and patients provides a broad perspective on professional behavior and communication. These 360 evaluations are completed twice annually.
• Procedure and case logs. Residents track key procedures and case experiences to ensure adequate exposure and skill acquisition. Although procedure logs are reviewed by mentors, APDs, and the PD semi-annually, residents are encouraged to update procedure and case logs frequently.
• Semiannual reviews. Twice per year, residents meet individually with the program leadership and mentor(s) to review their progress, reflect on strengths and growth areas, and create individualized learning plans.
• Clinical competency committee. A multidisciplinary group of core faculty reviews each resident’s performance semiannually to make Entrustable Professional Activities and formal milestone-based recommendations regarding advancement and trend towards readiness for independent practice.

The evaluation process is designed to be transparent, constructive, and aligned with our educational mission in order to help each resident reach their highest potential as a compassionate, skilled, and innovative emergency physician.