Ten Years of Academic Medical Center Experience With a Rural Emergency Medicine Rotation

Rural emergency departments care for millions of Americans every year. However, most emergency medicine residency programs are based in urban areas, providing trainees with relatively little exposure to the practice of emergency medicine in more austere settings.

In partnership with a rural site dedicated to improving the care delivered to a growing patient population, emergency medicine trained physicians employed by an academic medical center to work at the rural site collaborated with nursing staff and hospital administrators to develop and refine a rural emergency medicine rotation for second-year residents.

The rotation is now in its tenth year. As of April 10, 2026, 130 rotations have been completed by 122 unique rotators, six of whom were pediatric emergency medicine fellows. Employment applications from the residency program for attending positions at the rural site increased from zero before the rotation was developed to 19 (between 2016 and 2026). Of 12 emergency physicians currently working at the site, six rotated through the department as residents.

Our experience highlights the value of academic medical centers partnering with rural emergency departments to strengthen rural emergency medicine training and recruitment to the rural workforce.