Undergraduate Orientation
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Introduction to the Emergency Clerkship Rotation

There is a three week block for the Emergency Medicine Clerkship. The rotation has the following components:

  1. Clinical Experience in the Emergency Room
  2. Triage Desk Experience series
  3. Casting seminar
  4. Emergency Medicine departmental rounds
  5. Seminar series
  6. Logbook and evaluation
  7. Resources
  8. **Survival Guide**

There will be a one hour orientation on the first day of your rotation.

1.  Clinical Experience in the Emergency Room

Your experience may be at Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface General Hospital or a community hospital, depending upon the number of clerks in a given rotation. Each clerk will be scheduled for 12 shifts including some weekends. The clerk will optimally be scheduled with one staff physician throughout a given shift and at least 50% of their clinical hours will be scheduled with one or two primary preceptor physicians.

Primary preceptors provide for greater consistency of teaching, allow for a gradual increase in your level of responsibility, and improve our ability to assess your clinical skills.

 Please be sure to review the Emergency Medicine Clerkship Objectives.

2. Triage desk Experience

The medical student should spend some time during their first emergency medicine shift with the triage nurse. The objectives are to:

  1. Learn the process of triage
  2. Observe the process of how a patient enters the emergency room
  3. Review the ambulance codes, i.e., Red Romeo, etc.
3. Casting Seminar

There will be a 2-3 hour hands-on seminar on casting technique given by the casting technician. These will be held at HSC after the orientation session.

4. Rounds

The Medical Student may opt to attend the City-wide Emergency Medicine Departmental Rounds on alternate Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. From September to January they will be held at St. Boniface General Hospital in the Samuel Cohen Auditorium and then from February to June at Health Sciences Centre room PX236 in the Psychiatric Health Building. Selected rounds will be held at Community Hospital sites.

5. Seminar Series

There are case based seminars on Chest Pain, CNS Emergencies, Shortness of Breath and Toxicology. Resus Day will provide hands on practice for common ACLS and ATLS scenarios. You will be given a schedule for the seminars in your orientation package.

Objectives for each seminar.

 
6. Evaluation

We require the following documentation to be completed by the end of this rotation.

7. Resources

Each Emergency Department has a reference library which is also available to you. Two excellent references text for Emergency Medicine are:

i) Rosen P. et al, (eds). Emergency Medicine Concepts and Clinical Practice. 6th edition. St. Louis: Saunders Ltd, 2005.

ii) Tintinalli J., et al, (eds). Emergency Medicine: A Comprehensive Study Guide. 6th edition New York. McGraw-Hill, 2003.



8. Survival Guide

Student Guide to Survival in the Emergency Department

Tips for a Safe and Enjoyable Rotation
or: Do’s and Don’ts in the Emergency Department

  1. Always discuss every case with the Attending Emergency Physician (or a delegated Resident).
  2. Always examine the patient’s vital signs carefully.
  3. Always consider the most serious possible condition(s) first. Make the diagnosis of the most probable condition only after ruling out the most serious possibilities.
  4. Always review X-raysand ECGs with the Attending Physician.
  5. Beware of intoxicated patients. They are often sicker or more seriously injured than they may seem.
  6. Don’t ignore the advice of a nurse. If s/he is concerned about the status of a patient, you should be.
  7. Don’t be a hero. Always alert the Attending Physician when you have a sick or potentially sick patient.
  8. Don’t lose track of the patients you are caring for. Before picking up any new patient, review what is going on with the ones you are currently dealing with. In general, Clinical Clerks should not be dealing with more than 1 or 2 patients at a time.
  9. Don’t discharge any patient until all the appropriate lab studies are back and the patient’s disposition has been reviewed with the Attending Emergency Physician or a delegated Senior Resident.

If you observe these rules and are courteous, caring and honest, you should do well in your Emergency Medicine rotation. Best of luck!