Junior Resident
Focus on familiarizing yourself with your residency program and finding your feet as a new resident. Introduce yourself to faculty who have experience in addiction medicine and seek out opportunities to learn about substance use treatment programs at your institution and in your community. Keep an eye out for research projects related to substance use disorders (SUD).
Clinical Experience
- Seek elective rotations in addiction medicine or SUD clinics through your residency program.
- Learn about medication for addiction treatment (MAT). Consider initiating treatment for opioid and/or alcohol use disorders from the emergency department (ED) alongside your supervising attending.
- Learn about how SUDs affect patient care in settings across the hospital during your clinical rotations.
- Familiarize yourself with resources for SUD treatment at your hospital and in your community.
Mentorship and Networking
- Connect with faculty who have experience in addiction medicine.
- Attend addiction medicine conferences.
- Consider joining committees at your hospital or through academic societies.
Research
Become involved in research or quality improvement projects at your institution.
Insider Advice
"While most programs are affiliated through family medicine, internal medicine, or psychiatry, many consider emergency medicine-trained applicants. A few are led primarily by EM faculty, despite still technically being affiliated through the other specialties, as EM was only recently added as an ACGME Review Committee option. Expect to see more programs affiliated through EM over the coming years."
-Daniel Colby, MD
