Resident Moonlighting in the Emergency Department

Revised April 2025 with current title
Reaffirmed January 2019
Revised June 2013
Reaffirmed October 2007
Originally approved June 2001 titled "Providers of Unsupervised Emergency Department Care"

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) believes that the independent practice of emergency medicine is best performed by physicians who have completed American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) or American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM) certification or have successfully completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or American Osteopathic Association accredited emergency medicine residency and are in the process of completing ABEM or AOBEM examinations.

Physicians who are still in training or who do not fulfill these criteria are usually not equipped with the requisite cognitive and technical skills to provide unsupervised care in the wide range of situations encountered in an emergency department.

ACEP believes moonlighting residents should not provide unsupervised care in the emergency department.