Educating the next generation of leaders in Emergency Medicine and EMS is at the core of our mission. We strive to open doors for learners with an interest in prehospital medicine early on in their careers — to provide them with immersive, hands-on experiences that teach them all aspects of physician leadership in EMS systems, as well as the importance of developing trust and reciprocity with first responders.
Whether through exploratory learning or advanced competencies in EMS system development, oversight, and improvement, we are dedicated to educating and mentoring physician learners at all levels to become leaders in the specialty of EMS.
Prehospital Fellowships
We offer a one-year, ACGME-accredited EMS fellowship. With our access to primary medical direction, tactical EMS, critical care transport, event medicine, flight medicine, Heavy Urban Rescue and Disaster Medical Assistance teams, as well as county and state advocacy, we offer an unprecedented fellowship experience.
We also partner with UW Health Med Flight’s Retrieval & Critical Care Transport Fellowship to provide some of the world’s most advanced, well-rounded prehospital education and training. EMS fellows have the opportunity to fly with Med Flight, which has offered the highest level of critical care transport in the Midwest for 40 years.
Resident Training
Our emergency medicine residents gain exposure to a wide variety of prehospital disciplines throughout their time at UW. For residents looking to develop their careers in the prehospital field, we offer in-depth experiences led by our cadre of world-class faculty and prehospital clinical teams. These experiences can be individuals to include such areas such as disaster preparedness, advanced EMS medical direction, quality improvement, event medicine, and/or research.
Our residents have gone on to train in nationally recognized fellowships and serve in prominent leadership roles at prestigious U.S. medical centers.
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Core EMS Rotation
During PGY-1 year, our residents complete a required two-week rotation in EMS. This includes opportunities to ride along with paramedics from Madison Fire Department, other busy EMS services in the metropolitan area, and UW Health’s Pediatric Neonatal Critical Care Transport Team. Residents will also complete training in incident management from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and shadow 911 dispatchers in the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center. By providing this experience early in training, our residents have ample time to decide whether they would like to pursue a fellowship in EMS.
Prehospital Clinical Concentration
In recognition of the value of a structured, longitudinal experience to cultivate leadership experience and scholarly output, the Prehospital Division offers a Prehospital Clinical Concentration.
This opt-in program is available at the beginning of PGY-2 year and pairs residents with one of our EMS medical directors, who will serve as a career mentor for the remainder of their residency. Residents enrolled in this program will have the exclusive opportunity to be appointed as Resident Assistant Medical Director (RAMD) for one or more EMS agencies, allowing them to truly experience the administrative responsibilities of an EMS physician.
During PGY-2 year, residents will be focused on cultivating close relationships with their agency’s service directors and EMS providers by assisting the Medical Director with their duties. As residents transition into PGY-3 year, they will develop as leaders by taking a more autonomous role with their agencies and helping to supervise incoming PGY-2 RAMDs.
Residents enrolled in the Prehospital Concentration will be expected to devote a portion of their elective time to prehospital activities, will attend monthly meetings, and will be expected to focus their scholarly project on a prehospital topic. Though EMS experience is required for all residents in the Prehospital Concentration, individuals with a particular interest in helicopter EMS will be able to focus portions of their elective time to working with UW Health Med Flight as well.
Doc Ops Experience
Our residents are first exposed to the work of field EMS responders through a half-day immersion program. “Doc Ops” as created in 2010 to give interns an opportunity to walk in the boots of local firefighters and paramedics by participating in training exercises involving burning buildings, vehicle extrications and other mock emergencies as part of their orientation to residency. First-year residents come away with a new appreciation for the pressures facing emergency responders, which helps build strong relationships that ultimately improves communication, teamwork and patient outcomes.
Few residency programs in the U.S. have the expertise, resources, and collaborative relationship with fire-based emergency medical services to offer this type of unique and robust experience. We are proud to be able to provide this pivotal experience to our residents early in their training.
Medical Student Experiences
Students at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have many opportunities to gain exposure to prehospital medicine through the Phase 3 Prehospital Selective Course and fourth-year Emergency Preparedness Core Day. These opportunities include EMS ride-alongs, 911 Communication Center observation shifts, and interviewing local EMS Chiefs.
“EMER MED 911” provides a unique opportunity for fourth-year medical students to gain experience in the prehospital system while utilizing their public health knowledge to determine factors that lead to patient utilization of this system. During this course, students gain understanding of the prehospital system through first-hand experience with prehospital providers while appreciating the environment in which their patients live and work. Students observe patient care, conduct post-transport interviews in the emergency department, and examine the social and environmental determinants that led to activation of the prehospital system.
