Emergency Medicine Residency
You have the power to save lives. An emergency medicine residency with Geisinger will show you how.
About us
You want to choose the right residency program — and we’re committed to helping you find it.
Ready for a comprehensive, high-quality and personally rewarding experience to prepare yourself for a career in medicine? The emergency medicine program at Geisinger awaits.
Program highlights
The Geisinger Emergency Medicine Residency Program, the 11th oldest continually active program in the country, is a three-year (PGY1-3) program designed to develop practice-ready emergency physicians who contribute to and become leaders in their communities and specialty. The program will help you become a proficient, astute, empathetic and enthusiastic clinician who is well-rounded and capable of success across the spectrum of emergency medicine practice. Our faculty have a wide range of expertise in emergency medicine. They are recognized for their leadership within state and national organizations, including the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania College of Emergency Physicians (PACEP), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD), the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM).
As a premier training program in emergency medicine, we serve a unique rural population, offering quaternary care capabilities in a nationally recognized, integrated health system. Geisinger provides a long-standing, innovative and nationally recognized focus on quality patient care. Clinical experiences include practice environments that span rural and urban community hospitals to a large regional referral center with Level I trauma services and a certified comprehensive stroke program. The system covers 42 counties in northeastern and central Pennsylvania. Our primary site also has a Level II pediatric trauma center with a dedicated children’s hospital, providing a robust experience in the care of critically ill children. We serve our community via Geisinger Life Flight®, one of the nation's oldest and largest air critical care transport services.
Our forward-facing emergency medicine residency curriculum incorporates the knowledge, skills and abilities included in the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) clinical practice of emergency medicine across the clinical and didactic experiences. In addition to integrated community-based and pediatric clinical emergency medicine experiences, as a resident, you’ll have the opportunity to be a member of the flight crew on Geisinger Life Flight throughout your training. Our innovative didactic curriculum employs the best evidence methods for effective adult learning, balancing traditional lecture-based content with simulation, procedure labs, individual interactive instruction, flipped classroom activities and focused written and oral board review.
Life Flight
The Geisinger Life Flight program began in 1981 with a single airbase on campus at Geisinger Medical Center. Since that time, we have grown to six air bases, nine aircraft and two critical care ground trucks. Yearly, we do more than 3,500 patient transports. The program is entirely Geisinger-owned and operated under our part 135 FAA certificate. We are one of a handful of residency programs that truly incorporate the emergency medicine residents into Life Flight as part of the flight team.
During your intern year, you will do two flight shifts per week in your emergency medical services (EMS)/Life Flight block. As an upper level, you will be regularly scheduled for flight shifts during your Emergency Department (ED) blocks. At the end of your intern year, you’ll earn your status as a medical command physician in Pennsylvania. This allows you to guide the crews in the care of patients you’re treating. The Life Flight program does both inter-facility and scene calls. Whether landing on a hospital roof or the interstate, you’ll gain invaluable experience in the prehospital critical care environment.
Program overview
Research, scholarship, innovation
Research, scholarship and innovation are at the core of what we do at Geisinger Emergency Medicine. Since our founding in 1976 (the 11th-oldest program among emergency medicine residencies), we have a history and legacy of leadership and a unique approach to research, scholarship and innovation. We strive to develop, disseminate and implement best evidence in the care of patients in the emergency department and to improve the health of the communities we serve.
View a sample block rotation schedule
Simulation suite and control room
Simulation suite control room
Simulation suite
Residency educational facilities
Resident work area
Resident work area
Resident conference room
Resident lounge
Residency lounge
Emergency medicine residents like you need the tools to engage in evidence-based best practices — equipping you with them is our goal. Here, you can explore your unique interests in emergency medicine and ignite a passion for lifelong learning and self-improvement.
We use “Boyer’s four models” (discovery, integration, application and teaching) as a framework to foster, encourage and support a range of resident and faculty research and scholarship. You’ll participate in research and receive encouragement, support and mentorship through Boyer’s models to pursue personal interests and develop into a leader in the specialty while exceeding Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements for resident and faculty scholarship.
Through a focused curriculum, monthly journal club, an active Departmental Research Committee and faculty mentors with a range of expertise and interest, you’ll be immersed in an environment of discovery, learning, teaching and application in a longitudinal experience across the three-year residency. You can also participate in a research elective. At Geisinger, you’ll acquire a foundation in research methodology, become adept at evidence application and dissemination, and build expertise in the critical appraisal of literature to help you become and remain a board-certified emergency physician.
At Geisinger, we participate in EM-led and multidisciplinary studies across a broad range of topics. We also participate in several multi-center studies and clinical trials as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Strategies to Innovate Emergency Care Clinical Trials Network (SIREN) of emergency departments across the U.S.
Additionally, residents like you and our faculty help shape the future of research and scholarship in the emergency medicine specialty, serving in leadership positions in emergency medicine, including in Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), Pennsylvania College of Emergency Physicians (PACEP), American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP), National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) and American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).
Our residents and faculty have given award-winning presentations at regional, national and international meetings and have published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals, including JAMA, Lancet, Academic Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians-Open, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, Prehospital Emergency Care and other publications such as EM Resident.
Each year, we host the “Royer Scholarly Showcase,” named for Thomas Royer, MD, the founding director of Emergency Medicine at Geisinger. During this event, we celebrate accomplishments in research, scholarship and innovation and honor our heritage as a first-generation EM residency. You’ll also have the opportunity to participate in the annual Geisinger Resident and Fellow Research Day and a variety of other institutional research and quality-improvement initiatives and forums.
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Our faculty and staff have interest and expertise in broad topic areas, including:
- EMS/aeromedical transportation/out-of-hospital
- Resuscitation and critical care
- Operations and quality improvement
- Medical education
- Ultrasound
- Clinical ethics
- Clinical informatics
- Behavioral health and substance use
- Care coordination and population health
In addition to the topics listed above, we encourage and support interdisciplinary research and scholarship in other areas of interest related to emergency care.
Faculty also mentor medical students from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine through longitudinal and summer opportunities and students from other medical schools and several area colleges and universities. At the same time, multiple faculty serve as reviewers and editorial board members for indexed, scientific journals. Several of our faculty have even received grant funding to support their research.
Frequently asked questions
Read on for answers to some of our most commonly asked questions.