Philosophy
“Character, Competence, and Compassion”
Proud of our Heritage:
The goal of our program is to train emergency physicians who are true specialists in all aspects of emergency care. Our graduates are practicing in all areas of EM including private community, academic, EMS, administration, and international medicine. A carefully thought out curriculum coupled with our outstanding faculty enable our residents to thrive educationally. We are committed to the concept of graded responsibility. A house officer's responsibilities will gradually increase as he moves through the program each year gaining more responsibility and autonomy.
Top Notch Clinical Training:
Another philosophical position is that Emergency Medicine is best learned in the emergency 
department. Not only the knowledge and procedure base but the spirit and "mind set" of the emergency physician can only be learned in our own department. Our residents spend a total of 22.5 four-week clinical blocks (more than most residencies) in the ED managing both adult and pediatric patients. Other outside rotations have been designed to complement the emergency experience and follow the progression of various disease states in both adults and children.
The pediatric experience at Wake Forest is second to none. Our residents rotate through Brenner Children’s Hospital PICU and spend a total of ~6 months (Three primary Peds ED rotations and assigned Peds ED shifts during adult rotations) during their residency in our Level One Pediatric Trauma center staffed by faculty from the Department of Emergency Medicine.
We also have a strong ICU curriculum. Currently, our residents train in the CCU, MICU, PICU, and Trauma ICU. This provides abundant exposure to the critically ill patients and most advanced resuscitation and therapeutic interventions available.
Progressive Responsibility:
The internship year is designed to allow the resident to become familiarized with the gamut of pathology our specialty represents and to acquire the fundamental skills necessary to practice emergency medicine. Our residents spend almost half of their internship in our ED Interns are closely supervised by the faculty and senior residents during their initial months in the ED, thus making sure that the fundamentals of emergency medicine are being learned. It’s all about “quality” during the internship.
During the second year, more time is spent in the emergency department with increasing responsibility and autonomy. Efficiency and multi-tasking are emphasized during this year. The second year resident is expected to manage multiple patients simultaneously with varying degrees of acuity. The transformation into a practicing emergency physician begins during this second year of training.
During the third year, the goal is "clinical competence". The senior resident is given even more responsibility and autonomy with patient care decisions. In addition to assisting the attending physician in the overall management of the ED, the senior resident participates in the supervision and teaching of junior level residents and medical students. An important part of the third year is learning ED administration. While on duty in the emergency department, they are expected to interact with referring physicians, perform aeromedical triage, flight approval, and to administer on-line medical command to the incoming EMS units and helicopters.
This "graded responsibility" in resident education is truly the foundation that makes our training program one of the best in the country.