The Approach to the ED Patient

During your rotation, we hope to teach you our approach to patients. Our patients are different than those you've seen on the hospital floor or physician's office, so our strategies differ as well. In order to take into account these differences, our approach varies from the traditional approach, namely the differential diagnosis performed prior to … Continue reading The Approach to the ED Patient →

Shoulder Reduction: Cunningham Technique

I found this interesting information about a technique for shoulder reduction called the Cunningham technique. It requires no sedation and uses not brute force to reduce the shoulder. Basically it boils down to this: Put the patient's hand on your shoulder, this flexes at the elbow and shortens the biceps a little bit. Put your … Continue reading Shoulder Reduction: Cunningham Technique →

Is Emergency Medicine right for me?

I always found this to be a very difficult question. It's just like having to guess if being a physician is right for you. There's really no way to know until you're already a doctor, living the doctor's life. And by this point... it's too late! You can never really know until you're living the … Continue reading Is Emergency Medicine right for me? →

Diagnostic Testing (from SMART EM)

David Newman, from Mt. Sinai in New York, has one of the most insightful and interesting podcasts in Emergency Medicine: SMARTEM. Here's an excerpt from one of his podcasts which talks about diagnostic testing. It's 30 minutes that is really worth your time. I couldn't have said it better, so listen to the man himself. … Continue reading Diagnostic Testing (from SMART EM) →

Should I do a 3-year or 4-year residency?

This is a perpetual question facing medical students going into EM. Three- and four-year residency? The first thing you should know is that there are really three types: PGY 1-4: A four-year program that begins with the first postgraduate year of training PGY 1-3: A three-year program that begins with the first postgraduate year of … Continue reading Should I do a 3-year or 4-year residency? →

Outcomes and Kirkpatrick’s Hierarchy

In order to do research in medical education, we first need to define outcomes. Stanley Hamstra described at the SAEM 2012 Consensus conference the Kirkpatrick hierarchy for the assessment of learning. Most studies fall at the bottom of the pyramid, the learner’s reaction to the experience - did they like it? This is where most of our evaluations … Continue reading Outcomes and Kirkpatrick’s Hierarchy →

Asynchronous learning for EKG’s

Problem Identification and Needs Assessment It seems a crime to me that students finish medical school without the basic skills to read an EKG. No one volunteers this deficiency, but when asked the majority of students admit to it. This is in the fourth year, prior to their graduation. We need to do better … Continue reading Asynchronous learning for EKG’s →

Protected: APC Course Audiobook

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Trauma 101

Here's an introduction to trauma and the primary survey. Here we talk about the initial management of the patient within the "golden hour" (the hour in which if we resuscitate the patient we may prevent death). So what do we do in that first hour? Test your knowledge Bring your answers to class on Friday. … Continue reading Trauma 101 →

How to do a good literature search

For your project, you will be doing a literature search based on a question that you have. This is a clinically-focused, self-directed learning exercise in which you first develop your own learning objective, then acquire evidence to answer your question, and finally present it to the class. We’ll do this on the last day of … Continue reading How to do a good literature search →