Emergency Medicine Clerkship

Medical Student Training
Emergency Medicine 562
Orientation to Emergency Medicine Clerkship
(2010-2011)

Welcome to the Rhode Island Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine, the primary training site of the Brown Medical School Residency Program in Emergency Medicine. This is an urban, level 1 trauma center with combined annual census > 100,000 patient visits.

Clerkship Director: Dr. Elizabeth Sutton (401) 444-2739
Co-Director: Dr. Greg Lockhart (401) 444-2739

Introductions: Please supply Nancy Miller with 2-3 sentences about your background, anything you would like the faculty and residents to know about you and your specialty choice. This information will be put in a memo to all residents and faculty. For further information please contact Nancy at (401) 444-5826.

Dates of Electives: Please click here for dates of elective

General Objectives:

  1. To provide medical students a clerkship which satisfies requirements in the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Report. "Licensing boards, NBME, LCME, and medical schools must ensure that every medical student has acquired the appropriate knowledge and skills to care for emergency patients. This education must be provided through educational experiences supervised by appropriately qualified emergency physicians."
  2. To provide an experience where students learn to evaluate and manage undifferentiated emergency department patients. In addition, it will satisfy the requirements to award competency in Ability IV Diagnosis. Management and Prevention at the intermediate and advanced levels.
  3. To provide medical students the opportunity to observe and perform many basic clinical skills as outlined in MD 2000.
  4. To assure a comprehensive Emergency Medicine experience and address the "Emergency Encounters" knowledge base as outlined in MD 2000.

Reading Materials: See attached Tintinalli Chapter List readings that will be covered.

Didactics:

  1. Orientation by clerkship director to address logistics of rotation, student responsibilities, orientation to Rhode Island Hospital emergency department. In addition, there will be a general introduction to emergency medicine approach to patients, principles/methods of patient education and prevention.
  2. Small group interactive sessions on core topics in Emergency Medicine (mandatory). The list will include hands on training in airway management and critical resuscitation skills in the Emergency Department's Simulation Center.
  3. Wednesday resident conferences (at least 80% attendance). Lectures do NOT occur from end of June through July. Students will instead attend selected parts of intern orientation.
  4. Emergency Medicine Morning Report is held Tuesday through Saturday at 7AM in Physician Workroom 008 (attend when working days or overnights).
  5. Case Conference: CPC format with appropriate follow-up. This is followed by a 15-minute oral presentation on the major topic with regards to diagnosis, management and prevention.
  6. Resident lectures twice per week on core EM topics.

Topics Covered: Some of the topics covered include chest pain, SOB, abdominal pain, headache, altered mental status, ekg, eye emergencies, orthopedic emergencies, splinting lab, GU emergencies, vaginal bleeding, toxicology, airway, neurological emergencies, ENT, suture lab, and intoxicated patient/injury prevention.

Basic Clinical and Procedural Skills:

  1. Daily procedures in the emergency department are supervised by residents and faculty. All procedures, including laceration repairs, must be supervised by a faculty member or senior resident. See attached procedure log.
  2. Small Group lab sessions on splinting, wound management, and airway management (at the Medical Simulation Center).

Schedule: Students select one of seven schedules from a template. [16 total shifts, 8-9 hours long]. Included within the template are three night shifts and three weekend shifts.

Required Elements:

  1. Twelve adult ED shifts at Rhode Island Hospital, which will include a mix of trauma, urgent area and "fast track".
  2. Three shifts at the Miriam Hospital, a community hospital affiliated with Rhode Island Hospital
  3. One Pediatric ED shift at Hasbro Children's Hospital.
  4. Students working in acute areas are expected to evaluate an average of six patients per shift. Students should generally handle one or two patients at a time.
  5. Three overnight shifts
  6. Remainder of shifts are split between days (7-3pm) and evenings (3-11pm). No more than two students on any one shift.

Supervision:

  1. All cases should be presented to an attending physician for discussion of diagnosis and management. Faculty observe at least one full history and physical per clinical shift.
  2. Consults and patient reports to physicians occur only after prior discussion with the attending.

Assessment Methods:

  1. Daily clinical evaluations from faculty and senior resident 80%
  2. Performance Assessments (small groups and case conference) 20%

Guidelines for Visiting Students: Click here for Information for Visiting Medical Students.

Guidelines for International Visiting Students: Click here for Application Process for International Visiting Medical Students.

Application for Visiting Clinical Elective: Click here for an APPLICATION elective form in pdf format.

Housing for Accepted Medical Students: Once accepted to do a clerkship in the Emergency Medicine Department, you should receive housing information from the Graduate Medical Education Office (GME). If you do not, please contact the GME office at (401) 444-8450.

Requirements for End of Clerkship (no grades will be issued unless completed)

  1. Return book
  2. Course evaluation in Oasis
  3. Faculty evaluations to Nancy Miller
  4. Return procedure/patient log
  5. Return evaluation log
  6. Complete post-test
  7. Return teaching nomination form