Academic Departments of Emergency Medicine and Required Emergency Medicine Education in Medical Schools

Revised February 2023 with current title, June 2017
Reaffirmed April 2011, September 2005
Approved March 1999 titled "Academic Departments of Emergency Medicine in Medical Schools"
Originally approved November 1974 as Board Motion 005

ACEP believes each medical school should include an academic department of emergency medicine that will be responsible for educational programs in emergency medicine and will be equal in status to the other departments.

In addition, all United States medical schools should require formal exposure to the specialty of emergency medicine, including, but not limited to, an emergency medicine rotation, to ensure that graduating medical students understand the role of emergency departments and the practice of emergency medicine.

Medical schools without direct access to a clinical site for mandatory emergency medicine clerkships should strive to form agreements with and allocate appropriate resources to any affiliated academic emergency medicine department with a clinical site that is able to support this endeavor.