Emergency Medicine is a time-dependent specialty that demands the immediate decision-making and timely actions necessary to prevent death or further disability for patients in health crises. It is practiced as patient-demanded and continuously available care for a patient population that is unrestricted and presents with a full spectrum of episodic, undifferentiated physical and behavioral conditions.
The student’s responsibility in the ER is to serve as the primary caregiver to the patient in conjunction with other ED staff members and the supervision of the attending physician on duty. The physician assistants and certified nurse practitioners will not supervise or evaluate medical students performing a clerkship rotation in the ED. Students are discouraged from serving only in an information- gathering role. Students will be expected to perform a directed history and physical examination, formulate appropriate differential diagnoses, and institute a clinically indicated evaluation and treatment plan after discussion with the attending physician. This responsibility will also include abstracting information from the patient’s medical record, serially monitoring the patient for changes in clinical status and keeping the patient informed during the course of their ED evaluation.
Procedures that need to be performed on a medical student’s patient will be completed by the student under the supervision of the attending physician, unless the attending physician determines that a higher level of expertise is required in order to safely complete the procedure.
As the primary physician practicing under the direction of our ED staff, your educational goals and objectives are as follows:
Course Goals
Overall Goal: The development of the student’s clinical skills, including the diagnosis and management of life-threatening conditions in the undifferentiated patient with a secondary emphasis on basic procedural skills.
Goals:
- The student will be able to perform a directed, problem-focused history and physical examination.
- The student will formulate a differential diagnosis addressing urgent and emergent conditions consistent with history and physical examination findings.
- The student will demonstrate proficiency in basic patient care and monitoring procedures.
- The student will become proficient in basic wound management.
- The student will become proficient in basic splinting/immobilization techniques.
- The student will become proficient in basic EKG interpretation.
- The student will develop interpersonal skills and professional attributes necessary to provide care in the Emergency Department.
- The student will under the role the Emergency Department plays in the greater health care system and how the Emergency Physician may facilitate patient care, including pre-hospital care.
Contact the Emergency Medicine CST Coordinator with scheduling questions unless a course administrator is specified for a course in the course description.