Program Overview

Emergency Medicine Elective Program

The emergency medicine rotation provides a learning experience aimed at teaching medical students the necessary skills to take care of patients with a wide variety of undifferentiated urgent and emergent conditions. Our mission is to enable students to develop and demonstrate the core competencies in knowledge, skills, and behaviors of an effective emergency department clinician.

Mission and Introduction

The emergency medicine curriculum objectives specify student skills and behaviors that are central to the care of an emergency department (ED) patient and are appropriately evaluated in the context of the outcome objective for the medical program.

Guidelines

The Emergency Medicine objectives can be taught and evaluated in various settings, including:

• Clinical bedside teaching
• Observed structured clinical evaluation
• Lectures
• Problem-based learning groups
• Self-directed learning materials
• Simulations

Structure

• Length: four to six weeks
• Site: Emergency Department
• The Clerkship Director will provide an orientation at the start of the clerkship, including a discussion of expectations and responsibilities.
• Before the start of the clerkship, students are required to access the corresponding online Emergency Medicine course, which includes an introduction, curriculum, and web-based assignments.
• Exposure to undifferentiated patient complaints across all age groups: pediatric, adult, and elderly.
• Teaching rounds for house staff and students should be done at least once daily.
• A full schedule of teaching conferences, including grand rounds, residency conferences, and scheduled didactic sessions specific to the needs of the students.
• The clinical faculty must provide direct supervision of the students for physical examination, case presentations, and clinical procedures.
• All clinical write-ups or formal presentations must include a focused history and physical, problem list with its assessment, and a diagnostic and therapeutic plan.
• The clinical faculty will evaluate oral presentation skills and provide an objective assessment of competency in communication.

Educational Objectives

A. Medical Knowledge

• Students will demonstrate medical knowledge sufficient to:
  • Identify the acutely ill patient
  • Suggest the appropriate interpretation of tests and imaging data
  • Develop a differential diagnosis
  • Describe an initial approach to patients with various ED presentations
  • Actively use practice-based data to improve patient care

B. Clinical Skills

• Students will demonstrate the ability to:
  • Perform assessment of the undifferentiated patient
  • Gather a history and perform a physical examination
  • Recognize a patient requiring urgent or emergent care and initiate evaluation and management
  • Prioritize a differential diagnosis
  • Recommend and interpret common diagnostic and screening tests
  • Perform general procedures of a physician
  • Provide an oral presentation of a clinical encounter
  • Develop skills in disposition and follow-up of patients
  • Communicate effectively and sensitively with patients, families, and healthcare teams

C. Professional Behavior

• Students will be expected to:
  • Demonstrate dependability and responsibility
  • Demonstrate compassion, empathy, and respect toward patients and families
  • Demonstrate an evidence-based approach to patient care
  • Demonstrate professional and ethical behavior
  • Collaborate as a member of an inter-professional team
  • Evaluate own performance through reflective learning
  • Incorporate feedback into improvement activities
  • Be aware of their own limitations and seek supervision and/or consultation when appropriate

Core Topics

The educational core identifies the basic set of clinical presentations, procedures, and educational topics that would be covered or experienced during the clerkship. The principle teaching materials will be consistent across all training sites.

Clinical Experience

Clinical experience in the ED is the foundation of all emergency medicine clerkships. The major portion of the clerkship should involve medical students participating in the care of patients in the ED under qualified supervision.

Procedures

Certain procedures to be taught under appropriate supervision during the emergency medicine rotation include:

• Arterial blood gas and interpret pulse oximeter
• ECG
• Foley catheter placement
• Interpretation of cardiac monitoring/rhythm strip
• Nasogastric tube placement
• Peripheral intravenous access
• Splint application
• Wound Care: laceration repair, incision and drainage

Web-Based Educational Assignments

• Communication Modules
• Ethics Modules
• Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine Course Each lesson module has a multiple-choice test to evaluate interpretation of the materials in the reading assignment and simulated patient encounters. A score of 100% is required to pass the module.