Department of Emergency Medicine Residency Program

Since 1989, the UC Irvine School of Medicine's Emergency Medicine Residency Program has been training leaders in emergency medicine. 

UC Irvine Medical Center is a Level I trauma center, comprehensive stroke center, burn center, and cardiac receiving center. As the comprehensive tertiary care center for Orange County’s 3 million people, our medical center provides residents with a wide range of clinical experiences.

In addition to UC Irvine Medical Center, our residents rotate at CHOC Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Miller Children’s Hospital, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and the VA Long Beach Healthcare System.

During each shift, residents see a high volume of new, undifferentiated patients. We are proud of our one-on-one apprenticeship model. Our residents present every patient to an emergency medicine faculty member, never to a fellow resident. As such, our residents get the highest level of teaching for each patient case.

Our weekly conference appeals to today’s learners with high-yield, interactive didactics given by experts in all aspects of emergency medicine.

Explore our residency photo gallery here

2023-2024 Recruitment Season

Please visit our 2020 “Why UCI” webinar series and Residents’ Interests “Why I Chose UCI” to become better acquainted with our program.

In-Person Visits

The University of California Graduate Medical Education (GME) Offices and UC Irvine Emergency Medicine Residency Program support the 2023 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) interview guidance for the 2023-2024 recruitment cycle.

“The AAMC recommends that residency and fellowship programs use a virtual interview format. Reducing the cost of interviewing is a critical step in widening access and improving equity. In addition, initial, specialty-specific studies indicate that applicants prefer virtual interviews and virtual interviewing is consistent with the commitment academic medicine has made to reduce our environmental impact.”

To promote an equitable and transparent selection program, the UC GME Offices and UC Irvine Emergency Medicine Residency Program support the AAMC recommendation to use a virtual interview format for the 2023-2024 recruitment season.

• All University of California medical residency and fellowship programs that function under the Office of GME must conduct only virtual interviews for all selected applicants during the 2023 - 2024 academic year.
• Any in-person visits or “second looks” may be completed only after the program completes all virtual interviews and “locks” the rank order list (ROL). Even if the “locking” option is not yet offered by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) or other online system used for the trainee selection process, the program must still make all efforts to comply. Rank order lists should not be altered after any applicants’ in-person visits.
• Applicants will not be required to travel. In-person visits will not influence the programs’ rank order lists.
• Hybrid interviewing (combination of virtual and in-person interviews in the same year or program) is not permitted, because of the risk of inequities resulting from applicants’ different resources and abilities to visit in person.
• Programs must share their interview process with applicants as early as possible in the selection cycle to minimize applicant stress and optimize transparency.