• State Wide Care
• Teaching & Training
• Disaster Preparedness
• Health Care Access

Teaching & Training Programs

Each year, HCMC trains more than 20,000 health care providers, at HCMC and through outreach training programs across the state.

Top left: Paramedic training. Top right: Paramedic training demonstration by bomb squad. Bottom: Winter and summer TEMPO training classes for law enforcement officers.

Wherever you live in Minnesota, volunteer fire fighters, local police officers, county sheriff deputies, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMT's) and other emergency personnel respond when you dial 911. Chances are, HCMC helped to train them.

Last year, HCMC EMS trained over 5000 participants in CPR and EMT courses, Basic and Advanced Life Support classes, and other emergency medical training courses. Courses are taught at HCMC and off-site, with programming available to participants in diverse settings; for example, the Ridgewater/HCMC Paramedic training program, with Ridgewater campuses in Willmar and Hutchinson, Minnesota, uses distance learning technologies and offers both rural and clinical training sites, helping to meet the demand for paramedics in rural settings.

HCMC programming responds to diverse community needs; the Tactical Emergency Medical Peace Officer Program has EMT and First Responder refresher courses as well as customized training courses on specific subjects of concern. Drawing on unique faculty expertise and methods and tactics familiar to this unique group of public safety responders, the course concept was developed to provide specialized occupation-specific EMS training to all law enforcement personnel, so that they are prepared to assist citizens, themselves, and their colleagues in situations that they are likely to encounter. Innovative programming at HCMC continues; new training courses include Wilderness First Responder and EMT classes, to train outdoor educators and guides as well as EMS professionals in management of medical emergencies in isolated and extreme environments.

Read more about EMS Education

At your local hospital or clinic, HCMC helps to train the nurses taking care of you, the dentist and dental assistant filling your teeth, the counselors and physician assistants and speech pathologists, and the technicians drawing blood, taking X-rays, and working in the lab. HCMC helps train practitioners in more than 50 different health professions to provide medical care across Minnesota. Click here to see a list of Training Programs.

More than 50% of physicians practicing across Minnesota, in urban, suburban and rural hospitals and clinics, have trained at HCMC.

Left: Resident physicians train with HCMC faculty physicians in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, Right: Resident physicians train with HCMC faculty physicians in the Emergency Department Stabilization room

HCMC was the first teaching hospital in Minnesota. It was founded in 1887, started a nursing school in 1893, and was the first teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Minnesota Medical School. HCMC currently has 16 physician residency and fellowship training programs and also trains medical students and residency physicians from 26 programs at the University of Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic, Regions Hospital, North Memorial Hospital, the Veterans Administration Medical Center, and many other hospitals send practitioners to train at HCMC. Medical schools including Harvard Medical School, Mayo Medical School, Ben-Gurion University Medical School in Israel, and many others have sent students for clinical rotations at HCMC. In 2010, HCMC helped train more than 1200 nurses in diverse programs. In all, more than 140 hospitals, medical schools, colleges, universities and other facilities around Minnesota and across the U.S. send students to HCMC for clinical training. Click here to see a list of Teaching Partners.

Read about HCMC History

HCMC provides continuing education at HCMC and through outreach courses for clinicians, first responders, and disaster professionals across Minnesota to help practitioners keep their skills sharp.

Emergency Medicine residents treat a motorcycle crash victim in Simulation Training

Community physicians and many other practitioners come to HCMC for continuing education conferences and courses, to update their skills and knowledge. HCMC outreach training programs are offered in cities and communities across the state by the Hennepin Regional Poison Center, Trauma Outreach staff, Emergency Preparedness staff, Emergency Medical Services, and faculty from diverse clinical departments. Last year, diverse continuing education opportunities included more than 250 Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities taught at HCMC, around the state, and online.

Benefits of HCMC's medical education and training extend internationally as well. Clinical staff from U.S. Embassies in Chengdu, Beijing, Islamabad, Freetown, Cairo, and other cities around the world, have come to HCMC to train in critical emergency skills. Based on the international reputation and clinical publications of HCMC staff, individual physicians from as far away as Australia, Thailand, and Taiwan have come to connect with HCMC clinicians and to receive specialized clinical training unavailable elsewhere. Read more about International Connections on our Faces and Stories page.

HCMC adapts to contemporary training needs and challenges and utilizes cutting edge technologies. On-site Simulation training is utilized by HCMC residency programs and EMS Education and plans are in place for a new Simulation Center on the downtown campus. Educational conferences and classes can be viewed as webcasts, live or through archives and online EMS Continuing Education training courses address specific clinical topics. The HCMC Emergency Department website, hqmeded.com (high-quality medical education) posts diverse lectures and videos, subscriptions to Critical Care Conferences, and a link to "Dr. Smith's ECG blog," all utilized by practitioners around the world. HCMC also publishes Approaches in Critical Care; each issue is organized around a theme and is provided twice yearly to pre-hospital and hospital-based critical care professionals across Minnesota.

Each year, HCMC trains thousands of community members in trauma prevention, poison prevention, and basic medical skills.

Last year, staff from Trauma Prevention staff, EMS Education, and Hennepin Regional Poison Center staff led or participated with other organizations in trauma prevention, CPR, and poison prevention events that reached over 54,000 community members statewide.

Left: Poison Prevention Poster winners with Pete the Poison Prevention Pirate, Right: HRPC Annual Mushroom Hunt

When you add it up, each year more than 20,000 health care students and practicing professionals rely on medical education, allied health training, disaster training, and continuing education at HCMC to prepare them to be their best. And more than 50,000 community members are educated yearly in CPR and trauma and poison prevention.

Training Programs (>50)

Teaching Partners (> 140)

Note: This list does not reflect numerous additional institutions that send medical students for occasional rotations.