A Letter from the Program Director

Thank you for taking a moment to learn more about our program and our philosophy. Our 3-year, ACGME-accredited Emergency Medicine residency training program has trained graduates since 1982.

Located in the heart of Center City, Philadelphia, the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals serves a diverse patient population. As a quaternary, urban academic health center, we are a Level-1 trauma-receiving hospital, a regional spinal cord center, with both stroke and STEMI accreditations.

Our residents receive the bulk of their clinical training at Jefferson by directly working with our phenomenal faculty group. Our faculty represent local, regional and national leaders in our specialty. To further refine their training, our residents rotate through several clinical training sites, including three pediatric hospitals (the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children), as well as four community emergency departments. 

Our Emergency Medicine residency program has been shaped by several principles:

1. We believe in a holistic approach to application review and seek to achieve a diverse group of trainees that represents the patient population that we care for.
2. We strive to improve lives. Our residents are trained to provide evidence-based, compassionate, patient-centered care within the changing landscape of health care. Jefferson continues to be a global leader in telehealth for acute unscheduled medical care. Similarly, several of our faculty members are leaders in Design thinking in Medicine, supporting one of the first fellowships that focuses on applying design-thinking methodologies to improve the patient experience.
3. We believe in the importance of life-long learning in Emergency Medicine. Training at Jefferson empowers our residents to take full advantage of the latest trends in medical education. By providing our residents with a learner-centered experience across their training, we aim to produce adaptive graduates who will meet the needs of the future of Emergency Medicine. We boast a didactic program that includes simulation sessions with hands-on training; small-group learning and discussions; flipped classroom activities that incorporate gamification; and case-based learning. To this effect, training includes a rotation solely dedicated to supporting the “resident as teacher,” and allows senior residents to build on their experience with bedside teaching and supervising both medical students and interns.
4. We believe in engagement. Our residents are engaged in their training, engaged with their patients and their communities, and engaged with the larger institution. We feel engagement builds resilience and adaptability, and mitigates burnout. Our faculty foster an environment where mindfulness, grit, and deliberate practice are encouraged and modeled. We foster comradery through our ED ‘family’ teams – a family that includes our nurses, technicians, faculty, and residents. Residents gather at our annual residency retreat, in which they participate in resident-led team building activities, as well as at on-the-fly after-shift meals in one of the many surrounding eateries in Center City. Residents are supported by an ED schedule that is mindful of the stresses of shift work – a schedule that is guided by Circadian rhythm and is ‘templated’ to allow for life outside of work.

As you explore our site, I invite you to learn more about who we are and the numerous experiences we have to offer. Jefferson remains proud to continue to graduate well-rounded Emergency Medicine physicians who are prepared to excel in their future practice of Emergency Medicine.

I look forward to reviewing your application.

Sincerely,

Peter Tomaselli, MD

Program Director, Residency Program