Emergency Medicine - MD (EMED)

This course provides hands-on exposure to bedside ultrasound image acquisition and interpretation in the Emergency Department.

This course is designed to provide a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Experience for students interested in the acute care of children and is designed to expose the students to the broad range of conditions that present to a Pediatric Emergency Department.

This acting internship (AI) overall seeks to build on the foundations of clinical care laid in the preclinical and clerkship curricula. The acting intern will function with direct and indirect supervision and will act as the primary caregiver to a number of patients appropriate for their level of training. They will gather focused patient information during the history and physical exam in a time effective manner and use critical thinking and advanced knowledge to guide judgement and medical decision making in a semi-autonomous fashion. Students will take primary responsibility and be accountable for patient care, management, follow up, and reassessment throughout all phases of clinical care from arrival to discharge. Students will perform order entry and documentation on their patients to a sufficient degree to become independently competent in these skills. The AI student will be expected to exemplify professional behavior, communication, and teamwork with patients and families, inter-professional care team members and interdisciplinary consultants at the level of a resident intern. Prioritization and timely coordination of patient care activities will be the responsibility of the AI student, including smooth and effective transfers of care, discharge planning, and necessary follow up. The AI student will also display appropriate team leadership during teaching activities when applicable. During this specific AI Course, students will be immersed within the specialty of Emergency Medicine and will use advanced medical knowledge and practice during direct patient care in a collaborative and inter-professional manner.

This 2-week 4th year elective is designed specifically for students transitioning into their Emergency Medicine internship. In order to better prepare our students here at Penn State COM to meet the ACGME level-1 Emergency Medicine milestones, we will introduce and/or refresh the following sub competencies important to new emergency medicine residents: Recognize common emergency presentations and form a decision making framework, demonstrate basic suturing and splinting techniques, the basics of reading radiographs and point of care ultrasound, appraisal of the literature, and advanced communication skills, such as hand-offs, consults, and triage. The course content will be delivered in three forms: formal didactic lectures, case-based learning, and simulation exercises for hands-on experience. Simulation exercises include assessment and management of shock, airway management, common pediatric emergencies, point of care ultrasonography, and a skills workshop involving suturing and splinting. Students will complete a pre and post course assessment survey to gauge their desired/needed learning experiences and their feedback on the course.

Toxicology admissions and consults; weekly two-hour conferences; poison center sign-out rounds; exposure to the most common toxicologic poisonings; research opportunities.

The rotation will take place at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in the adult and pediatric emergency department. This is an academic emergency department with > 75,000 visits per year, Level 1 Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center, and Comprehensive Chest pain and Stroke Center. Students will engage in 13 clinical shifts at Penn State Hershey (the majority will be in the adult/general ED and 1-3 in the pediatric ED). Clinical shifts will include a mixture of day/evening/night shifts. Students will also engage in 2 interdisciplinary care "shadow shifts" with combined experiences with pharmacy, nursing, social work. Students will also complete one required prehospital experience which may be a day or night shift. Students will be expected to attend all Penn State EM Residency conference didactics (Wednesdays 8am-1pm, excused from conference if post-night) and all student simulation sessions (Wednesdays 12-1:15pm or 2:30-3:45pm, excused from simulation of post-night) and complete the SAEM MS3 Examination.

Emergency Medicine Independent Studies

Emergency Medicine Special Topics