The Department of Emergency Medicine offers several elective rotations for medical students in order to provide emergency medicine experience in both clinical and research areas. Starting as first year medical students, students can participate in emergency care with the EMR 401 preceptorship. During the fourth year, several electives are offered to provide students with basic emergency medicine knowledge and continued exposure to the care of emergency patients.

These electives are some of the most popular fourth-year courses, and most students feel that they gain a unique knowledge base during their emergency medicine rotations. Students work side-by-side with emergency medicine residents and are supervised directly by emergency medicine faculty, with significant time spent on bedside teaching and personalized interaction. All of the clinical shifts are spent in the UC Davis Emergency Department, which has one of the nation's highest-acuity and the area's most technologically-advanced emergency departments, making it an ideal training ground for both students and residents.