PREREQUISITES

Students will have completed all of their 3rd year core clinical clerkships and will take this clerkship during June of their 3rd year or during their 4th year. 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Our core mission is to teach students to develop risk-stratified differentials and assessment strategies that can be applied to the acute undifferentiated patient.  Students will also acquire skills of critical judgment and learn to apply appropriate basic life support skills within the context of all organ systems and multidisciplinary context areas.

In these endeavors, we hope to expose students to the operation of the modern Emergency Department and how the provision of such care relates to not only their future roles within an increasingly complex medical system but also to their responsibilities regardless of individual career paths.

 This clerkship is based on the most recent recommendations and syllabi developed, in-part, by the Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine (CDEM).  This model and its subsequent revisions were developed in response to a national call for the standardization of education in emergency medical care. (ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17: 638-643.)

 This 4-week clerkship is offered from June through April.  The main educational component of this clerkship is 11 eight-hour clinical Emergency Department shifts during which clerks are expected to see and directly staff patients who present for acute medical care.  This clinical education is supplemented with four required educational days that cover a multitude of topics including quality improvement, point-of-care ultrasound training, triage and disaster medicine, toxicology, basic life support skills, and advanced life support skills.  Methods of teaching include direct patient care, simulated patient care, case discussions, grand-rounds lectures, online didactic modules, online quizzes, and asynchronous video podcasts.