Background If you’re a medical student interested in emergency medicine, it’s a pretty safe bet that you’re also interested in resuscitation medicine. It’s a defining aspect of the specialty — how to take a sick, undifferentiated patient and simultaneously investigate and treat a potentially very broad differential diagnosis. The challenge is that, as a junior learner, you’ve likely received limited teaching in resuscitation medicine, and what teaching you have received is probably more …
How to Present a Case in the Emergency Department
Presenting a case in the ED is important for a number of reasons. Not only does better communication result in better patient care, but it’s also a great learning opportunity and your chance as a clerk to impress your attending. Presenting a case well conveys your level of knowledge and understanding to an attending, which allows them to accurately assess and teach to your weaknesses. It also illustrates that you can create a …
Requesting Consults in the Emergency Department
You are halfway through your very first Emergency Medicine shift. You have a 23 year old male patient who appears to be a slam dunk for acute appendicitis – he has symptoms that are consistent with the presentation, pain on palpation at McBurney’s point, a high white count, and CT findings of appendicitis. Your staff is being pulled in a thousand different directions, and asks you if you feel comfortable calling General Surgery …
“Help us help you” – Soliciting Feedback in the ED
We’ve all heard the adage that practice makes perfect and to become an expert you must complete 10 000 hours of deliberate practice1. This involves motivated, goal oriented, purposeful practice with periodic feedback. Feedback is critical to allow for growth from where you currently are as a clinical clerk to where you want to be as future practicing physician2. Even with extensive deliberate practice, you will plateau without guidance and identification of areas …
Learning to fly in #PGWHY5: Five tips for survival in the exam year
Five practical tips on surviving the Emergency Medicine Royal College Exam!
Steps to Success in Enhanced Training in Emergency Medicine: The CCFP-EM Year
This post is the first of a series of opinion pieces dedicated to resident physicians and medical students applying, experiencing, and studying for the Canadian College of Family Medicine – Enhanced Training in Emergency Medicine (CCFP-EM) year. Be sure to also listen to the companion podcast: Are you a Family Medicine resident about to graduate and embark on an extra year of training in Emergency Medicine (EM)? Are you worried you don’t know …