Undergraduate Medical Education

An orientation session will be held at the beginning of the EM/ACS clerkship.  This orientation session will discuss the main components of the clerkship (as listed below).  The schedule of didactic lectures, clinical skill sessions, patient simulation encounters, and Emergency Department shifts will be discussed.

EM/ACS physicians will give the didactic lecture series.  These lectures will focus of the general treatment of medical emergencies, based on organ system.  The core lectures will focus on the following topics:

• Abdominal emergencies
• Airway management
• Environmental emergencies
• Genitourinary emergencies
• Neurologic emergencies
• Otolaryngologic emergencies
• Orthopedic emergencies
• Overview of Emergency Medicine
• Toxicologic emergencies
• Trauma
  

Clinical skill laboratories will occur throughout the 4-week clerkship.  These clinical skill laboratories will be run by the EM/ACS physicians.

These clinical skills laboratories will focus on the following basic procedures:

• Airway management
• Arthrocentesis of the knee
• Blood draws / Peripheral IVs
• Central line placement
• Lumbar puncture
• Nasogastric tube placement
• Splinting
• Suturing

The majority of these sessions will be held in the Clinical Skills Laboratory in Rooms 332/333 Hamilton Building.  Please see the final schedule for exact dates and times and for any changes in location.

There are several other procedures for which formal teaching laboratories will not be given.  The students are expected to review these procedures independently and will be tested on the material.  These procedures include:

• ECG Interpretation
• Foley Catheter Placement
• Interpretation of the Cardiac Monitor

Patient simulation encounters are an exercise designed to mimic a real life situation in which the student is given an opportunity to reason through a clinical problem and make diagnostic and treatment decisions.  Patient simulation encounters are a tool used to teach and to access competency and also to assess teamwork skills.

Patient simulation encounters for the EM/ACS Clerkship will focus on basic assessment and management of acute illness and application of the clinical skills taught during the clerkship. During the clerkship students will participate in several patient simulation encounters.

Students will be expected to complete approximately fourteen (14) clinical shifts in the Emergency Department during the clerkship. Each shift is approximately eight hours in length. The total expected clinical time in the Emergency Department is 112 hours. During these shifts students will directly care for patients, with Emergency Medicine attending and resident supervision. Responsibilities include performing comprehensive history and physical examinations, formulating a treatment plan, ordering appropriate laboratory and diagnostic tests, performing needed basic procedures and arranging for inpatient care along with outpatient follow-up care. 

Visiting students will rotate through the Jefferson Emergency Department. 

All students should contact their affiliate Emergency Department as soon as possible. The contact name and directions for each affiliate is available in the orientation packet.

Students will be expected to care for no less than one patient per hour during their Emergency Department shifts.

Students are expected to update their PELS program during and after each clinical shift, procedural laboratory, and patient simulation. The targets for the EM/ACS clerkship are:

40 Total Patient Encounters

One encounter for each of the following emergencies:

• Airway management
  
• Cardiovascular emergency
  
• Environmental emergency
• Gastrointestinal emergency
• Genitourinary emergency
• Neurologic emergency
• Otolaryngologic emergency
• Orthopedic emergency
• Shock
• Shortness of breath
• Toxicologic emergency
• Trauma
• Vaginal bleeding

One encounter for each of the following procedures:

• Airway management
• Arthrocentesis of the knee
• Blood draws / Peripheral IVs
• Central line placement
• ECG Interpretation
• Foley Catheter Placement
• Interpretation of the Cardiac Monitor
• Lumbar puncture
• Nasogastric tube placement
• Pulse Oximeter Interpretation
• Splinting
• Suturing

During the clerkship, students may participate in the two-day ACLS and or two-day PALS course if space is available.  

There are no required texts for this clerkship.  Below are two recommended texts:

• Emergency Medicine Manual:  6th Edition, by O. John Ma, David M. Cline
• Atlas of Emergency Procedures by Peter Rosen, Theodore Chan, Gary Vilke, and George Sternbach

Students are expected to display professional behavior towards the teaching faculty and residents and towards each other.  The compassionate treatment of patients and respect for their privacy, dignity, and individuality is expected when working in the Emergency Department.