Residents in the Indiana University School of Medicine—Bloomington Emergency Medicine Residency program will participate in a robust clinical curriculum across seven clinical sites designed to expose you to key components of emergency medicine practice in settings to help you develop the confidence and competence needed to be successful providing emergency care to all patients regardless of resources available to you.
PGY-1
Our seven clinical sites will expose you to the breadth of emergency medicine opportunities from small rural critical access sites to busy community referral centers and specialized pediatric emergency medicine settings.
Intern year begins with an orientation month to facilitate your transition to residency. This critical bonding period dedicates time with your co-residents, faculty and the hospital setting you up for success on each subsequent rotation. The month includes a series of educational sessions including didactics, simulation and procedure training. A small number of orientation shifts in the Bloomington emergency department allows you to develop relationships with the nursing staff while familiarizing yourself with processes and the layout of the department. Social activities throughout the month help you establish the relationships that will support you and help you thrive during residency with your co-residents and others.
Intern emergency medicine rotations are at the flagship IU Health Bloomington Hospital which serves as a referral center for other hospitals in the region. You will focus on development of your ability to identify, stabilize and resuscitate all emergency department patients with one on one faculty supervision and teaching on every case, helping you to develop the foundational skills necessary for every emergency physician.
*Of the six 28-day emergency medicine blocks you will complete in your first year, one of these blocks will include one week of vacation for the resident.
At Ascension St. Vincent Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, you will gain exposure to the unique needs and stressors of pediatric emergency medicine and identify urgent and emergent pediatric presentations of disease while developing the ability to resuscitate and stabilize pediatric patients. At this site, you will interact with other residents, forming bonds across programs, and understanding differences in training between pediatrics and emergency medicine. The hospital, located in Indianapolis, is approximately a one-hour drive from the primary site. Housing in proximity to the site is provided by the program free of charge to the resident.
During your four-week rotation at IU Health Medical Group Riley Pediatrics, you will work alongside pediatricians in their outpatient urgent visit clinic. This pediatrics group has a rich history of managing many of their own patients in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. This experience will gain you expertise in recognizing variations of presentations of sick children and their management gaining you valuable repetitions of pediatrics experience.
The ICU rotation at IU Health Bloomington Hospital provides the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to effectively resuscitate, diagnose and support critically ill patients and learn valuable communication skills with their families using resuscitative procedures, diagnostics and management techniques while working closely with our critical care attending physicians. This unit sees a variety of medical and surgical critically ill patients allowing the resident to experience the full range of the community ICU.
On the cardiology service at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, you will work closely with our cardiology attendings to develop proficiency in ECG analysis, diagnosing and treating common cardiovascular complaints including ACS and non-ACS related chest pain, valvular disease and arrythmias. Resident physicians will also understand indications for timely interventions of cardiology procedures and spend time in the electrophysiology lab.
*This block also includes one week of vacation time for the resident.
Working on the labor and delivery service at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, you will gain valuable skills in evaluation and management of the pregnant patient. You will participate in vaginal deliveries with our OB colleagues. You will also spend time in the “OB ED” learning to manage a variety of pregnancy complaints after 20 weeks, an invaluable skill when faced with a lack of OB resources in rural and critical access settings.
*This block also includes one week of vacation time for the resident.
During the ultrasound portion of the rotation, you will develop robust knowledge and skills surrounding the indications and conditions in which POCUS is most beneficial. This foundation will serve as the basis for a career long POCUS use and cement your use of POCUS in the emergency department for diagnostic and procedural indications.
On the anesthesia portion of the rotation at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, residents will have many opportunities to demonstrate competence in airway assessment and management of airways in a controlled environment including familiarity with basic airway maneuvers, adjunct airway equipment and endotracheal intubation.
*This block also includes one week of vacation time for the resident.
Block 1 — Orientation
Block 2 — Emergency medicine
Block 3 — Pediatrics
Block 4 — Pediatric emergency medicine
Block 5 — Ultrasound/anesthesia
Block 6 — MICU
Block 7 — Emergency medicine
Block 8 — Emergency medicine
Block 9 — Cardiology
Block 10 — Emergency medicine
Block 11 — Emergency medicine
Block 12 — Obstetrics
Block 13 — Emergency medicine
PGY-2
The PGY-2 year is marked by increased responsibility in the emergency department. Eight blocks are spent in the Bloomington Hospital emergency department, further developing your resuscitative and stabilization abilities while developing your leadership skills. During this year, you will also be introduced to the IU Health Bedford emergency department and will experience the busiest critical access emergency department in Indiana, learning to stabilize and transfer patients with minimal resources.
On rotation at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, you will continue to develop the ability to identify, stabilize and resuscitate all emergency department patients. As an upper-level resident, you will begin to shift your focus to management of the emergency department while focusing on efficiency in patient care and developing leadership skills for interprofessional team management in the emergency department. You will continue to work one-on-one with emergency department faculty to provide guidance and insight into different practice patterns.
*Of the eight 28-day emergency medicine blocks you will complete in your second year, two of these blocks will include one week of vacation for the resident.
At IU Health Bedford Hospital, you will refine the ability to identify, stabilize and resuscitate all emergency department patients while working in a unique critical access hospital setting. You will learn the nuances of working in a single covered environment with minimal resources while safely paired with one of the same attending physicians who cover the IU Health Bloomington Hospital emergency department. Lawrence county brings a variety of high acuity and interesting pathology to this unique department with 23,000 visits per year. You will also develop skills in negotiating transfer arrangements that are imperative in this setting. Your procedural skills will also be honed without significant specialist coverage.
On rotation in the PICU at IU Health North Hospital in Indianapolis you will develop the ability to evaluate, diagnose, stabilize and resuscitate critically ill pediatric patients. The unit is staffed by board-certified pediatric intensivists providing an excellent educational experience for our residents. The hospital is approximately a one hour and fifteen-minute drive from the primary site. Housing in proximity to the site is provided by the program free of charge to the resident.
During your second block in the IU Health Bloomington Hospital medical ICU, you will continue to hone your skills with critically ill adult patients. As an upper-level resident, you will develop into a leadership role for the care team and in the resuscitation of your patients.
While on the orthopedic service at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, you will demonstrate proficiency in diagnosing and managing urgent and emergent orthopedic injuries, including fracture reduction, splinting, dislocation reductions, radiographic interpretation, musculoskeletal examination, pain management and effective interprofessional communication with orthopedic specialist services. You will be paired with our attending orthopedic surgeons and be able to learn from their wide range of expertise.
During your first of two elective blocks, you will have the opportunity to tailor your education in a topic area of your choosing. Options available include radiology, advanced EMS, advanced ultrasound, palliative care, global health, medical education, and quality improvement/ED operations. Residents are also free to develop their own elective if an existing one is not available. The first elective also includes a dedicated week to be used to engage with our longitudinal research curriculum and further develop your residency scholarly project.
*This block also includes one week of vacation time for the resident.
Block 1 — Emergency medicine
Block 2 — Emergency medicine
Block 3 — Community emergency medicine
Block 4 — Orthopedics
Block 5 — Emergency medicine
Block 6 — Emergency medicine
Block 7 — PICU
Block 8 — Emergency medicine
Block 9 — Emergency medicine
Block 10 — Emergency medicine
Block 11 — MICU
Block 12 — Elective/research
Block 13 — Emergency medicine
PGY-3
The PGY-3 year marks your transition to a leadership role in the department at IU Health Bloomington where you will be responsible for directing the care of medical students on staffing shifts incorporated into the seven rotations spent in the Bloomington ED. In addition to another block in the IU Health Bedford ED you will rotate through the ten bed IU Health Paoli ED to experience additional time in a rural, resource-limited setting.
During your PGY-3 rotations you will have an opportunity to refine your ability to identify, stabilize and resuscitate all critically ill emergency department patients. You will grow into a leadership role in the department, prioritizing overall department flow and focusing on your patients. You will also supervise fourth year medical students in the department, developing valuable skills as an educator.
*Of the seven 28-day emergency medicine blocks you will complete in your third year, three of these blocks will include one week of vacation for the resident.
Your second month in the IU Health Bedford emergency department will give you an opportunity to continue to develop your ability to care for patients in a resource limited environment and embrace your role as the leader of the care team.
During your block in the IU Health Paoli Hospital emergency department you will care for patients in a 10 bed, rural critical access emergency department. This will provide you with an understanding of the unique challenges and rewards of rural emergency medicine practice while serving a unique community. You will continue to be paired with emergency department attendings that also work at Bedford and Bloomington hospitals allowing you to compare and contrast experiences across practice settings. Paoli Hospital is one hour away from our primary site; housing will be provided to the residents while on rotation.
Your second block at the Ascension St. Vincent's pediatric emergency department will give you additional opportunity to care for infants and children, further honing your ability to recognize significant pathology and stabilize and treat a wide variety of children.
While on your Neonatal ICU rotation at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, you will care for patients at the beginning of life, treating a uniquely vulnerable population. Our Level 3 NICU provides an elevated level of acute care, and you will work directly with our neonatologists in the unit responding to deliveries.
Your rotation with the anesthesia service at the Southern Indiana Surgery Center will provide you with valuable experience with the pediatric airway. The center has a high volume of pediatric cases to enhance your education and comfort with this unique population.
During your second of two elective blocks you will have the opportunity to tailor your education in a topic area of your choosing. Options available include radiology, advanced EMS, advanced ultrasound, palliative care, global health, medical education, and quality improvement/ED operations. Residents are also free to develop their own elective if an existing one is not available.
Block 1 — Emergency medicine
Block 2 — Pediatric emergency medicine
Block 3 — Emergency medicine
Block 4 — Community emergency medicine
Block 5 — Pediatric anesthesia
Block 6 — Emergency medicine
Block 7 — Emergency medicine
Block 8 — Emergency medicine
Block 9 — Elective
Block 10 — NICU
Block 11 — Emergency medicine
Block 12 — Rural emergency medicine
Block 13 — Emergency medicine
Didactic Curriculum
The didactic curriculum for the IU School of Medicine—Bloomington Emergency Medicine Residency has dedicated conference time for its emergency medicine residents every Thursday morning. This time is protected from clinical duties in the emergency department, and content has been developed to respect each year’s unique educational needs.
The didactic curriculum is built around the Foundations of Emergency Medicine curriculum with core content guided by interactive small group sessions working through individual cases. You will have dedicated time to complete your pre-work before these small group sessions and be able to take ownership of this content by leading monthly recaps.
In addition to the core foundation curriculum, you will participate in longitudinal series of ECGs and radiology. This small group content will be interspersed with monthly simulation sessions, ultrasound content with hands-on practice and procedural skills taught in a rapid cycle deliberate practice model. You will additionally have an opportunity to participate in leadership development sessions and joint conferences with our internal medicine colleagues. Longitudinal curriculums covering content across EMS, administration and quality, and research are included in your didactics.
You will have access to key question banks designed to help you retain the knowledge you learn in conference and cement your learning before your annual in-training exam.
Resident Life
Joining the IU School of Medicine—Bloomington Emergency Medicine Residency will prepare you for a lifetime of confidence and competence across clinical settings.
Benefits of training at the Bloomington Emergency Medicine Residency include:
- protected conference didactic time
- annual stipend for CME
- travel to two conferences during your time in residency