Overview

---

This clerkship is a one-month rotation. Students complete the clinical portion of the rotation at University of Chicago or NorthShore depending on lottery results. Students will have the opportunity to care for patients with a wide range of medical, surgical, and obstetrical/gynecological disorders. They will have a unique opportunity to assess the undifferentiated patient who is often acutely ill. The rotation will provide the students with experience in rapid patient assessment and the opportunity to simultaneously manage multiple patients. We will help the student master the prioritization of care for the individual patient and acquire triage principles required to care for multiple patients in the Emergency Department setting. Orientation will be held on the first day of the rotation and is mandatory, no exceptions. Students will take part in weekly simulation and didactic sessions and must attend all sessions to successfully complete the clerkship.

Objectives

---

Diagnosis and Management in Emergency Medicine
1. By the end of the clerkship, the student will be able to perform focused and time appropriate patient evaluations beginning with the primary survey and based on the patent's presenting complaint.
2. By the end of the clerkship, the student will be able to provide an appropriate list of differential diagnoses, prioritizing diagnoses by likelihood and threats to life and limbs.
3. By the end of the clerkship, the student will verbalize diagnostic evaluations and treatment plans based on the differential diagnosis, concept of cost-effective medicine, and available resources in the Emergency Department setting.
4. By the end of the clerkship, the student will verbalize the need for urgent and emergent therapeutic intervention based on recognition of unstable vital signs, signs of acute distress, and impending decompensation.
5. By the end of the clerkship, the student will demonstrate the ability to care for and facilitate the evaluation and treatment of multiple patients simultaneously.
6. By the end of the clerkship, the student will be able to identify when consultations with social work, patient advocates, and case management is indicated, communicate with these inter-disciplinary providers, and incorporate their recommendations into patient care plans, demonstrating an understanding of how social and economic factors contribute to the acute presentation of a patient to the Emergency Department.
Oral and Written Communication
1. By the end of the clerkship, the student will demonstrate the ability to presents cases concisely, yet comprehensively, including only pertinent information in the presentation.
2. By the end of the clerkship, the student will demonstrate the ability to write problem-oriented patient care notes in the medical record.
3. By the end of the clerkship, the student will demonstrate the ability to prepare and call consultations to clinical services based on the 5Cs framework.



Professional Behavior
1. By the end of the clerkship, the student will sign up to care for patients without prompting, following patients to disposition, and update the team on the clinical progress of their patients, demonstrating enthusiasm, interest, and self-motivation.
2. By the end of the clerkship, students will consistently employ verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that convey empathy, active listening, professionalism in interactions with patients and families.

Evaluation

---

Students will be evaluated by attending and resident physicians on their ability to perform a focused history and physical, develop appropriate differential diagnoses, propose appropriate diagnostic evaluation and treatment plans, assess and stabilize critically ill patients, and prioritize care for multiple patients. Students will take a final exam and complete a case presentation at the end of the clerkship.

Students are not to make any plans that involve multiple days off in a row during their Emergency Medicine Clerkship. Students should not take the Emergency Medicine Clerkship during residency interview months. Student schedules are chosen from a template and no schedule changes can be made to the template without prior approval from the clerkship director.

Visiting students will need to provide their own transportation in order to commute to NorthShore Hospital for the weekly required simulation/didactic sessions.