Clinical Curriculum

EM1 Overview

In 2003, Denver Health Medical Center’s Residency in Emergency Medicine became an EM1-4 program creating an EM1 year that lays a solid foundation for the EM2-4 years. Our EM1 curriculum is designed to provide the EM1 with the clinical experience and skills to “line the tool belt” of interns in preparation for their upper years in residency. Although heavily weighted in rotations that an EM resident will maximally benefit from, the EM1 year is still intended to represent a traditional internship. To this end, the intern year has been a great success. With rotations through the Denver Health Medical Center, the University of Colorado Hospital, and The Children's Hospital of Denver, in both surgical and medicine disciplines, residents gain the broad foundational knowledge base and technical skills necessary to produce strong emergency physicians.

EM1 Schedule

Rotation Descriptions

Anesthesia The resident acquires fundamental skills of airway management and knowledge of RSI and sedative/analgesic pharmacology.

Critical Care The resident has extensive exposure to critically ill patients during the EM1 year, gaining knowledge and becoming accomplished in procedures essential to resuscitation. The resident will rotate in the MICU at the University Hospital and Denver Health, which are both attended by faculty members of one of the nation's most prominent Pulmonary / Critical Care departments. The University Hospital Burn ICU builds on MICU experiences, where the resident assume a senior position, gains further procedural and resuscitation experience, and leads major resuscitations of critically ill burn patients.

Emergency Medicine The resident will gain a diverse, foundational EM experience during the EM1 year, rotating at Denver Health for 1 month in both the adult and pediatric emergency departments (DECC). The resident will additionally rotate for 3 months at the University, assuming a progressive amount of responsibility in the department over this time in preparation for the EM2 year.

General/Trauma Surgery The resident rotates on the general/trauma surgery service at Denver Health, directed by Dr. E.E. Moore, one of the most highly regarded trauma surgeons in the world. The resident cares for floor and step-down status patients, who are of intermediate acuity between floor and ICU status. While on call, the resident will have the valuable additional experience as the ED consult junior resident for neurosurgery, plastics, and urology services; and becoming familiar in the initial management and disposition of these patient populations.

Internal Medicine The resident rotates for 1 month on the internal medicine service at Denver Health, serving the county population and caring for a diversity of medical and cardiac patients. This month rotation is organized into a rotating 6-day shift cycle, with one night shift each cycle.

Neurosurgery The resident will become familiar with the management of traumatic and non-traumatic neurosurgical patients, managing floor and step-down status patients. The resident also has the valuable experience of the role of ED consult resident, managing patients of all acuity levels from their initial presentation.

Vacation/Intern Week The EM1 will have 3 total weeks of vacation through the year, falling during Emergency Medicine months; an additional week, "Intern Week," falls between the end of the EM1 and EM2 year, which is considered unpaid vacation.