At Mayo Clinic, we recognize that robust emergency medicine training is available to you in many ACGME-accredited programs across the country, supported by dedicated educators and strong oversight. What truly sets Mayo Clinic emergency medicine apart is our dedicated, patient-centered multidisciplinary team, combined with unparalleled resources and our highly complex, acute patient population. This unique combination allows us to invest deeply and meaningfully in each resident’s overall experience and personalized educational goals. With generous funding, our residents engage in multiple cadaver-based procedural labs throughout their training, including specialized workshops like the hand lab, advanced airway lab and advanced procedure course. They also develop and apply advanced ultrasound skills under the guidance of expert faculty, using state-of-the-art equipment for procedures including regional blocks and resuscitative TEE. Our program also offers diverse learning experiences through regional, national, and international rotations, including many opportunities at our Mayo Clinic campuses in Florida and Arizona, as well as at Mayo Clinic Midwest Health System campuses. We encourage and support our residents' involvement in regional and national committee work, as well as their participation in presenting research and quality improvement projects on prominent platforms, further enhancing their development as leaders in emergency medicine.

A universal rooming system in our emergency department provides PGY-1 residents with immediate access to all levels of patient acuity, enabling them to play an integral role in the care of our sickest patients under the supervision of senior residents and academic faculty. Early in their training, PGY-1 residents begin serving as primary airway providers in our department after completing two intensive airway courses — one mannequin-based and one cadaver-based. Additionally, most of our off-service rotations are emergency department-based, allowing residents to learn directly from experts in the key consultative fields critical to emergency care. This approach helps residents to hone a nuanced understanding of neurologic, orthopedic, and psychiatric acute care that is applicable in any care setting.

Mayo emergency medicine offers a comprehensive, longitudinal community and rural emergency medicine experience, enabling residents to develop their skills in varied resource environments throughout all years of training. Pediatrics is also longitudinally integrated into all emergency medicine rotations throughout all four years of training to build an excellent foundation of pediatric expertise. Additionally, our program provides opportunities for our residents to gain experience in palliative care in the emergency department setting, telemedicine, digital health, and clinical informatics.

Training at a highly integrated, nationally and internationally recognized leader in healthcare — where the focus is always on “the needs of the patient come first” — instills these principles in our graduates, ensuring they carry throughout their careers.

At Mayo Clinic, we are the primary emergency care provider for a vast region encompassing Southern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. Our Midwest emergency departments treat hundreds of thousands of patients annually, including more than 85,000 at the Saint Marys emergency department in Rochester, our academic training site. You’ll encounter everything typical of any busy urban or suburban emergency department, along with a high volume of high-acuity patients transferred from a broad network of regional community emergency departments. As a major quaternary care center with global reach, Mayo handles a vast number of highly complex cases, including complications related to solid organ transplants, immune-modulating medication therapies, ECMO, LVADs, advanced surgical care, dialysis and a wide range of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Our trainees also play a critical role in the care of patients with new or established diagnoses who seek Mayo Clinic care from regional, national, and international locations. On average, depending on your level of training and the nature of your shift, you can expect to see one to three new patients an hour. As a senior resident, you will also manage sign-outs, continue care for existing patients, and oversee boarding patients. Each shift will present a diverse mix of high-acuity and low-acuity cases, trauma and medical emergencies, and both complex and straightforward scenarios. You will also gain experience managing a broad spectrum of behavioral health emergencies.  

Throughout your training, you will develop procedural expertise and confidence. Emergency medicine teams manage all airways in our department, and as one of the only Level 1 Adult and Pediatric trauma centers in a vast geographic area, you'll care for numerous major traumatic injuries. While most of our major trauma cases involve high-mechanism blunt polytrauma, our residents also gain significant experience with penetrating trauma, achieving both competence and confidence. Trauma proceduralist and the trauma team leader roles alternate daily, in close collaboration with our surgical colleagues, with clearly defined roles and exceptional interdisciplinary teamwork. Additionally, Mayo Clinic is an ECMO center, with cannulations regularly performed in the emergency department.

In short, you will experience the breadth and depth of emergency medicine. Our practice and mission demand excellence, and our trainees graduate fully equipped to care for the most complex patients.

In a word: excellent. Our trauma teams consist of an equal mix of emergency medicine and surgery residents, fostering strong communication and teamwork during resuscitations. We collaborate seamlessly, alternating roles with our trauma surgery colleagues—one day leading the trauma resuscitation, the next day serving as the procedural resident. Emergency medicine manages all trauma airways. This close partnership ensures that both teams work cohesively to provide the best care for our patients.

Mayo Clinic is an American College of Surgeons Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center, accredited since 2009. Approximately 20% of each emergency department block will be spent in the pediatric emergency medicine care area, allowing residents to experience the seasonal variation inherent in pediatric acute care. In the first year, you have a block focused on pediatric emergency medicine. The teaching is exceptional — our pediatric emergency medicine faculty members are frequently recognized with teaching awards.

While Mayo Clinic is a major referral center for all of Minnesota, western Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and northern Iowa — and yes, globally — we are the primary emergency provider for a large geographic region in the Midwest. The majority of cases we handle are the emergencies typical of any urban or rural community, providing core emergency medicine experience. Our residents also care for a variety of patients with uncommon or uncommonly complex medical problems. Learning in such an environment is an opportunity to build and apply your knowledge of physiology. Once you have trained at Mayo Clinic, you can no longer be surprised by the complexity of a patient.

PGY-1 residents typically work 20 to 21 shifts during each 4-week ED block. Type and numbers of shifts change with increasing PGY level, including increased supervisory and educational responsibilities.

Our shifts are nine hours, which includes eight hours actively picking up and caring for new patients and one hour for transition of care.

Community emergency medicine shifts are typically 12-hour shifts to mirror the community shift experience.

Yes, residents can start moonlighting around the beginning of their PGY-3 year if desired, eligible, and in good academic standing.