An Educator's Guide to Teaching Emergency Medicine to Medical Students

Abstract

Thereis a need for every medical school graduate to handle emergencies as they arise in the daily practice of medicine. Emergency medicine (EM) educators are in a unique position to provide students with basic life support skills, guidance in assessing the undifferentiated patient, and exposure to the specialty of EM during all years of medical school. Emergency physicians can become involved in a variety of education experiences that can supplement the preclinical curriculum and provide access to our specialty at an early stage. A well-designed course in the senior year allows students to develop critical thinking and patient management skills that are necessary for any medical career path. It can ensure that all medical students are exposed to the skills essential for evaluating and stabilizing the acutely ill patient. To implement this type of course, learning objectives and evaluation methods must be set when the curriculum is developed. An effective course combines didactic and clinical components that draw on the strengths of the teaching institution and faculty of the department. A structured clerkship orientation session and system for feedback to students are essential in nurturing the development of student learners. This article provides an approach to assist the medical student clerkship director in planning and implementing EM education experiences for students at all levels of training, with an emphasis on the senior-year rotation.

Dual Learning in an Emergency Medicine Clerkship Improves Student Performance

“…Clinical bedside teaching, problem-based learning groups, case conferences, simulation, and self-directed learning have all been cited as suggested settings for education in the EM clerkship, but evidence-based best practices for how to deliver the curricular content of an EM clerkship have yet to be formalized (4,15,16). It is logical to believe that some combination of clinical (actual or simulated) and didactic modalities may be ideal as suggested by previous literature (16,17). Our results are in line with the work of Debehnke who showed that readings augmented with case conferences improved student knowledge (18).…”

“…The increase in test scores seen in the DL group may not only be reflective of increased knowledge but also improved critical thinking skills, which can be taught during problem-based learning sessions (17). In this instance, students bring their individual clinical experiences with similar cases to the table for the case conference.…”

Matrizes para a Aquisição de Competências no Ensino de Urgências Clínicas / Ensino de Urgências Orientado por Competências

“…Ainda, a construção destas matrizes levou em conta sua aplicabilidade em diferentes propostas de projetos pedagógicos. A opção por um modelo de ensino orientado por competências encontrou respaldo em algumas das referências bibliográficas usadas na execução do trabalho 14,[19][20][21][22][23] .…”

“…Tais referências foram utilizadas na execução do presente trabalho, para definição final das competências a serem adquiridas durante o estágio de urgências clínicas, considerando os níveis secundário e terciário da atenção à saúde 14,15,[19][20][21][22][23] .…”

Further recommendations for trauma training of Indian medical officers and medical students

“…Coates [11] has suggested a similar scheme for the teaching of emergency medicine to Californian medical students in their senior-year rotation.…”