Part I: Emergency Medicine Rotations and Letters
On January 25, 2021, the Coalition for Physician Accountability (CoPA) released guidelines regarding away rotations for students participating in the upcoming residency application cycle in light of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. The primary recommendations were:
- No away rotations before 8/1/2021, except for students with a specialty interest they are unable to pursue at their home institutions
- Tentative resumption of away rotations after 8/1/2021, with a limit of one such rotation per student
As a field that relies heavily on away rotations, Emergency Medicine (EM) is uniquely affected by these recommendations. The purpose of this statement is to affirm conceptual support for the CoPA guidelines, and to describe the specifics of how they should be operationalized in EM to optimize equity and consistency in the residency application process. An additional intent is to recognize these rotations as valuable finite resources and assure they are available to the majority of applicants. In light of the continually changing landscape of the pandemic, this statement will be re-evaluated as new information becomes available, and will be revised if needed in May 2021. These guidelines apply to the Main Residency Match and do not apply to students who have a contractual obligation to the military or are applying to the military match.
In an effort to promote safety, fairness, and equity in the EM residency application process, we strongly recommend the following principles be followed: