+ 2025-2026 Elective Process
25-26 | A | B |
---|---|---|
1 | 6/30-7/13 | 7/14-7/27 |
2 | 7/28-8/10 | 8/11-8/24 |
3 | 8/25-9/7 | 9/8-9/21 |
4 | 9/22-10/5 | 10/6-10/19 |
5 | 10/20-11/2 | 11/3-11/16 |
6 | 11/17-11/30 | 12/1-12/14 |
7 | 12/15-12/28 | 12/29-1/11 |
8 | 1/12-1/25 | 1/26-2/8 |
9 | 2/9-2/22 | 2/23-3/8 |
10 | 3/9-3/22 | 3/23-4/5 |
11 | 4/6-4/19 | 4/20-5/3 |
12 | 5/4-5/17 | 5/18-5/31 |
13 | 6/1-6/14 | 6/15-6/28 |
In April your class and the RLT will finalize your block schedule, it is important to keep in mind if you want certain electives (global health, GRR, Wilderness, away electives, etc) you block those off as allowable by your class's schedule.
Meetings in April with LaFollette will be self-scheduled to go over your elective plan. This page is meant to provide examples of tried-and-true electives as well as unique electives residents have done in the past. This list is meant to be complete but not exhaustive. Electives are your time to get creative, find your niche and be a better doctor. Use them as such and come prepared to the meeting with ideas.
Timeline:
- 4-6 weeks ahead of your elective (6 months for away electives), you will receive an elective form (google doc) from Kim to fill out and have your elective mentor sign off digitally.
- After your elective, Kim will reach out asking for your pre-defined elective product and feedback on the elective
- Feedback is key to keeping electives as engaging and helpful as they can be, we will send a survey post-elective, but also email / text LaFollette any feedback
Education
Critical Care
EMS
Social EM
Clinical Electives
Other electives
operations
FOAMed with Drs. Hill / LaFollette
Offered: All year
+ Goals
+ Objectives
End Product: Online post (podcast, video, section, etc0
+ Time Reqs
Bedside teaching with Dr. Jason Nagle
2 week elective
Offered - 2025-2026 blocks PENDING (but likely similar…)
July-October (1A-5A)
February-April (9A-11A)
June (13A-B)
+ Goals
+ Time Reqs
End Product: Education Consult Document (by faculty)
+ Objectives
Critical Care Ultrasound with Dr. Jordan Bonomo
Offered: All Year as approved with Dr. Bonomo's schedule
+ Goals
+ Objectives
End Product: US Case Write-up, US of the Month Case, Lit Review, etc
Difficult Airway Elective with ENT
Offered: All Year
End Product: Clinical Elective - no end product required
Objectives:
Increased comfort with the operative neck anatomy
Perform a tracheal procedure in the controlled operative setting
See post-operative patients on rounds and increase comfort with the recently operative neck
Elective Sponsor - Dr. Yash Patil
Hours and responsibilities dependent on operative case availability. At least 20 h/wk clinical time
End Product: Clinical Elective - no end product required
Evidence-Based Medicine with Dr. Caroline Freirmuth
Offered: All Year
+ Description
End Product: Lit Review or QI/KT Lecture
+ Goals
Ed Resuscitation with Dr laFollette
Offered: All Year
+ Goals
+ Objectives
End product: Lit Review and Discussion, Checklist
+ Optional Lectures
Emergency Management with Dr. Dustin Calhoun
Offered: All year - pre-approval by Dr. Calhoun depending on available opportunities during proposed time (trainings, events, etc) Flying Pig medical control would fall into 11B for the 24-25 year
+ Goals
+ Objectives
Intro to EMS with EMS Faculty
Offered: All Year
+ Goals
+ Description
Global Health through UCEM
We have established electives in Guatemala and Tanzania with diverse clinical experiences. Each of which require 6 months of lead time for GME / Department approval. Before each experience, we will define a project you can take away from your experience in addition to the invaluable clinical exposure, including a QA project or addition to our tropical disease case library. If interested, please discuss with elective mentors or residents that have gone previously.
The end products of each elective are
Sending proof of completion of this course to us.
Completion by at least one supervisor of the agreed upon evaluation form (will need to redo this, and have a section for non-clinical rotations, e.g., those that are primarily education focused)
Make a plan and complete a project after returning, either a GR short talk (we’ll probably do a round up talk as we have before) or a TTS post or something else TBD
+ Description
+ Description
Tanzania
Guatemala
In conjunction with our partners at the Maya Health Alliance and Christ Hospital Family Medicine Program, please see link for more information
2025-2026 Dates tentatively 2/28-3/14
2025-2026 Dates
9/6/25 - 9/20/25
11/1/25 - 11/15/25
1/31/26 - 2/14/26
4/11/26 - 4/25/26 - Preferred UCEM Slot
6/6/26 - 6/20/26
See the TtS GH Page for further details
Intro to Operations (A&O1) with Dr. Rob Thompson
Offered: All year except 1 A/B, 4A, 7A, 10B
This introductory elective will serve to familiarize residents with core topics and themes within healthcare operations and administration through reading assigned textbook chapters and articles, completing specific Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) courses, and attending departmental operations meetings. This elective can be skipped if a resident already has foundational knowledge in the areas of quality improvement, patient safety, and patient experience, such as an MBA, previous relevant work experience, and/or extensive exposure in medical school.
+ Objectives
+ Core Tasks
Advanced Operations (A&O2) with Dr. Rob Thompson
Offered: All year
This advanced elective will build upon the foundation developed in the introductory elective, A&O1. The resident will be tasked with designing a project as it relates to their area of interest within healthcare administration/ED operations. The project can be completed longitudinally. Additionally, the resident will curate literature/research articles within their niche and contribute to the growing Operations Library.
+ Objectives
+ Core Tasks
ED Operations/Healthcare Administration Scholarship (A&O3) with Dr. Rob Thompson
Offered: All Year
This elective should be taken after a resident has implemented a project/intervention of their choosing. The main focus of this elective is on dissemination and synthesis of scholarly work. Ideally, the resident will present an abstract, publish a manuscript, develop a presentation (for UCEM Grand Rounds, UCEM Operations Leadership Academy, regional conference and/or national conference), and/or complete another form of scholarship
+ Objectives
+ Core Tasks
Capacity Management with Dr. Bennett Lane
Offered: All Year except 1A, 6A, 7A, 13B
Goals:
At the end of the elective, the resident will be able to:
Describe a commonly used model of hospital and ED throughput and the relationship of ED to the hospital
Describe commonly used quantitative analytic techniques for capacity and flow
Objectives:
Core content readings (6 articles/chapters focused on theory) + following Chalk Talks (2 of these): Queuing theory, Overview of throughput modeling
ED example readings (3 of these) + addition of 2-3 new ED example readings + annotation in a bibliography of these example readings
Participation in systemwide capacity management meetings
Complete mentored case reviews of transfers/bed board calls
4 hour shadowing with Discharge Expeditor RN
4 hour shadowing with CMC ("bed board")
Examples of potential end products:
Analysis of a specific flow/throughput activity in the system
Taming the SRU post on a capacity management topic relevant to the ED
Informatics with Drs Frank Fernandez and Bennett Lane
Offered: Scheduling depends on Epic offering of courses, contact Dr Fernandez/Lane for additional information on timing of electives
Requirements: 2x2 week blocks (required commitment to two elective blocks, generally non-contiguous 2-week blocks. Electives can be spread between different years)
Goals:
Familiarize yourself with the back end of Epic EMR and the clinical abilities and implications of use. For both operationally or community focused residents
Objectives:
Core content readings: Perspectives and evidence on IT in the clinical environment
Discussions with Dr Fernandez and Dr Lane on application of informatics in the ED and health system
Attend departmental/system informatics committee meetings (if scheduled during elective block)
Complete Epic Physician Builder course sequence
End Product:
Epic Physician Builder certificate
Resident will design and build an element in Epic in collaboration with clinical informatics leadership
FLEX ICU Elective with Dr. Jordan Bonomo
Available as 2-4 week blocks
Mix of daytime and nighttime 12 hour shifts with primary patient coverage
Attend daily education sessions
Collaborate as part of PERT and In-Hospital Code Teams
Manage Organ Donation patients
End Product: Clinical Elective - no end product required
Organ Donation Management with Dr. Jordan Bonomo
Offered: year round depending on Dr. Bonomo’s schedule
Length: 2 weeks
Goals:
Exposure to the process of organ donation, from brain death declarations to donations after circulatory death. Residents on this elective will manage all organ donors at UCMC in conjunction with LifeCenter Donor Coordinator staff, all under Dr. Bonomo’s direction. All procedures (bedside ECHO, bronchoscopy, arterial access, central lines, chest tubes) will be done by residents on the elective. During active donor cases, residents will engage in frequent contact with the donor coordinators and make all initial donor management decisions following the LifeCenter DOP. Residents will follow donors through the entire donation process, including into the OR for procurement. Extensive readings on brain death, organ donor management, ventilator management, ethics and resuscitation are required. During active donors, residents will be on call for the entire case, by phone, which may last up to 48 hrs. Schedule can be modified to accommodate a reasonable amount of time away from clinical duty on this elective if needed (AirCare, moonlighting, etc).
End product:
A prepared didactic, delivered to LifeCenter organ donor coordinator staff of 20 minutes on a critical care or resuscitation topic
Palliative Medicine with Dr. Kiser and the palliative Team
Length: 2 weeks at WCH
Goals:
Palliative Medicine can be integrated into more than just terminal patients’ care, and seeing how it can be ideally done can help those providing ED and Critical Care appreciation that care can be improved across the spectrum of care locations
Description:
Clinical time rotating and performing consults with the Palliative Care team will be held on weekday rounds, including educaitonal sessions.
End product:
Varies, from an educational presentation to a TamingtheSRU post to an evaluation of ED palliative needs (continuity of care, Epic dotphrases, etc)
Research with Dr caroline Freiermuth
Offered: All year
+ Description
+ Goals
Simulation with Dr. Spenser Lang
Offered: All Year
+ Goals
+ Description
Intro to Social EM (SEM I) with Dr. Kelli Jarrell
Offered: Year round
Goals: This elective aims to introduce residents to core content in social emergency medicine, to improve residents’ understanding of social determinants of health, and to prepare residents to incorporate social context into the structure and practice of emergency care.
Description: This two-week, flexible, self-paced hybrid elective is a combination of asynchronous content and in-person clinical experiences. Residents will become familiar with local ED-based resources by spending time with both the ED-based Early Intervention Program (EIP) and the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) teams. Residents will lead one Social Emergency Medicine Journal Club on a topic of their choosing. Elective residents will complete an end product of their choosing (eg., Taming the SRU post, Discharge instructions, Curriculum resources).
Time requirement: One-half day each with EIP and SUD (typically on the same day). Optional experiences available at the resident’s request. SEM JC scheduled with consideration of residents’ availability.
Advanced Social Emergency Medicine (SEM II) with Dr. Jarrell
Offered: Year round with approval
Goals: This elective aims to allow residents to design and implement projects in social emergency medicine that are beyond the scope or time constraints of the introductory elective.
Description: This elective builds on the foundation developed in the introductory elective. This advanced elective provides residents the opportunity to develop and/or implement relevant projects. Projects may be operational, educational, or research in nature. Implementation may occur at the departmental, local, regional, or national level. Content areas must be relevant to social emergency medicine, public health, population health, and/or global health. Faculty mentorship and prior approval required.
Time requirement: Weekly meetings with project mentor
Social Emergency Medicine - Harm Reduction with Dr. Kimmel
Offered: Year round, 2-4 weeks
Goals: This elective aims to introduce residents to core content in the treatment of people with substance use, to improve the residents understanding of social determinants of health and avenues of care for people living with substance use disorders.
Description: This two-week, flexible, self-paced hybrid elective is a combination of asynchronous content and in-person clinical experiences. Residents will become familiar with local community resources through involvement with Hamilton County Public Health and the Early Intervention Program.
Time requirement: Approximately 40 hours of in-person clinical time and 10 hours of self-paced review of instructional resources. This counts as a clinical elective (no end product).
Social Emergency Medicine - Human Trafficking with Dr. Jarrell
Offered: Year round, first two weeks of every month
Goals: This elective aims to introduce residents to advanced content in social emergency medicine, specifically topics related to human trafficking.
Description: This two-week, flexible, self-paced hybrid elective is a combination of asynchronous content and in person shadowing experiences. The goal of this elective is to provide residents with tools to identify, intervene, and advocate for patients who may be victims of human trafficking (HT), including sex and labor trafficking.
Time requirement: Asynchronous two-week elective with approximately 8 hours of in person attendance
Social Emergency Medicine - advocacy with Dr. Jarrell
Offered: Block 11B, corresponding with Advocacy Day presuming it is the same in 2025
Goal: The goal of this elective is to introduce residents to the process and inner workings of advocacy work as an emergency medicine physician.
Description: Residents will complete asynchronous educational content about advocacy within emergency medicine. Additionally,
Time requirement: 2 weeks. Residents will have the opportunity to shadow a lobbyist in Columbus and attend House and Senate meetings relevant to Ohio ACEP*. End product may be proposed and developed by the resident, but options include a Taming the SRU post or brief talk during Social EM Grand Rounds.
*In order to visit Columbus for committee meetings, residents must be members of ACEP/Ohio ACEP.
Social Emergency Medicine - street medicine with Dr. Kimmel
Offered: Year round
Goals: This elective aims to introduce residents to core content in street medicine, to improve residents’ understanding of social determinants of health, and common considerations in the care of persons experiencing homelessness.
Description: This two-week, flexible, self-paced hybrid elective is a combination of asynchronous content and in-person clinical experiences. Residents will become familiar with local community resources through involvement with Hamilton County SAFE services. Residents will also spend time working clinically with NeighborHub Health Street Outreach, in conjunction with Dr. Kimmel or Dr. Jarrell. Elective residents will complete an end product of their choosing (eg., Taming the SRU post, Street Medicine Protocol, Curriculum resources).
Time requirement: Two half days with the NeighborHub Health Street Outreach team, one half days with the Hamilton County SAFE services team, one evening with MedVoUC, one evening with Bridge the Gap outreach event, and one half day touring local services. This counts as a clinical elective (no end product).
Sports Medicine with Dr. Bret Betz and Dr. Danny Gawron
Offered: Fall/Winter (3A-6A)
+ Goals
+ Description
+ Time Req
Toxicology with Dr. Shan Yin
In conunction with CCHMC, the PEM fellowship and the Poison Control center, you will rotate for 2 weeks with a mix of asynchronous case review and time on call with poison control.
Blocks NOT available: 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 6A, 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B
Sample schedule for 2 week block
Day 1: Introduction to elective, introductory lecture - approx 3 hours
Day 2, 3: PC observation 4 hours each day
Day 4-9: 8 hour on call daily for the PC. 3p-11p. Resident will take calls from physicians, PAs, NPs that are calling the PC for advice on patients. Call volume varies but is not burdensome (PEM fellows have been doing this for the past 2 years)
Day 10: Journal club. Discuss articles that will be given out on day 1. 2-3 hours.
May include other webinars or lectures depending on what is going on in the tox world.
Weekends off
End Product - Case write up of supervised clinical case
Ultrasound with Dr. lori Stolz
Offered in 2w blocks
+ Goals
Stolz's Recommended Sites
ACEP Compendium - basics
Sinai EM - Tutorials and Peds
NYU sono - blog / tutorials / cases
Sonospot - comprehensive
Toronto - TTE
HQMedEd - video tutorials
AEUS - narrated videos
Critical Echo - ICU sonography
Ultrasound Cases - cases, mainly from radiology
Virginia Sono - basic tutorials with quizzes
Soundbytes - video tutorials
Vimeo Ultrasound - group of diverse videos
Ultrasound Site - MSK ultrasound
Highland US - great regional block resource
Neuraxiom - nerve block illustrations
- See/scan as much pathology as humanly possible
- Be actively involved in the sonographic evaluation of critically-ill patients. Identify areas of personal deficiency and practice these exams
- Challenge yourself with advanced scanning techniques
- Reach your goal number of scans
+ Time Req
Wilderness Medicine with Dr. Conal Roche
Offered during Medical Student Elective - 4B for 2025-2026
Description:
Resident Leader of a College of Medicine course led by Dr. Roche
Learn / reinforce rope skills, AIARE Avalanche skills, Outdoor survival skills are more depending on yearly content and can lead sessions if you have a special outdoors skill
Outside Electives
Exploring fellowships, future careers or foreign countries as part of global health initiatives are a great way to spend elective time, finance and time permitting. These can either be used as independent electives or part of another elective (OMFS clinic, NICU, ENT, Radiology Ophtho, etc). Below are some examples of rarer elective or in the rest of UC that have been valuable. Please note several of these need UC/Dept approval and therefore need at least 6 months of lead time.
+ Annals of B Pod
+ West Chester / Community Operations with Dr. Summers
+ Ethics Consult Service
+ Getting Ready for Residency
+ Ghana EM
+ MICU
+ NICU
+ OMFS
+ Ophthalmology