Residency
Welcome!
Thank you for your interest in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
A national leader in education and clinical excellence, the Department of Emergency Medicine is on a mission to train future leaders in emergency care. Residency program graduates will be well prepared as patient-centered leaders, equipped with the skills necessary to balance career, life and wellness.
Since 1992, the VUMC Emergency Medicine Residency Program has been serving the complex needs of the region, at one of the highest acuity emergency departments (ED) in the country. Our vision is to leverage this unique setting to train resident physicians to deliver timely, safe, effective and personalized care to any patient, anytime, anywhere.
The department is a national leader in emergency care research and enrolls thousands of patients per year in multiple high-quality, multi-center studies. VUMC includes a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, comprehensive stroke center, the only national Level I trauma center, Level I pediatric trauma center, and comprehensive burn center in Middle Tennessee.
The focal point of residency training will be the VUMC ED. Located blocks from downtown Nashville, the Adult ED sees over 70,000 visits per year with a 38% admission rate. The acuity is high, and the orientation month will prepare you for this challenging clinical experience with high-quality didactics, simulation sessions, bootcamps, and buddy shifts.
From day one, EM residents will see incredibly complex and often critically ill patients. Residents will quickly learn to rapidly assess and stabilize a wide variety of patients including the many thousands of LifeFlight transports which arrive at VUMC each year.
Residents’ trauma experience will be second to none. As a major receiving center for critically injured patients, the VUMC Adult ED sees more than 8,000 trauma activations per year, many of which require immediate life-saving intervention.
Didactic Education
The Emergency Medicine residency curriculum is specially designed around the science of adult learning and includes high-yield short lectures, flipped classroom case-based learning, a novel life and career skills curriculum called “Evolution MD,” inter-departmental learning, and our famous airway/cadaver lab taught by top procedural experts.
Residents will spend over 100 hours with simulation and procedure faculty and will log hundreds of ED ultrasounds under the careful supervision of the ultrasound division.
Resident Life
Residents will have the opportunity to live and work in Nashville, which is consistently ranked one of the fastest growing and most exciting metro areas in the country. In addition to its famous designation as “Music City,” Nashville is a booming city with something for everyone ranging from professional and minor league sports to live music and entertainment venues, outdoor activities, and some of the most exciting cuisine in the Southeast.
Learn more:
Residency Leadership Team
Matthew Pirotte, MD
Residency Program Director
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Residency Assistant Program Director
Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine
Chief Resident, PGY-3
Meet our residents
View residents' profiles in the department directory.