Emergency Medicine - Medical Student Elective

Emergency Medicine (4 weeks)

The Ochsner Emergency Department hosts a multitude of medical students rotating through their Sub-I electives. During their month-long rotation, students receive a comprehensive orientation from the EM Clerkship Director and one of the Ochsner Emergency Medicine Residency Chiefs. Visiting students are thoroughly integrated into various aspects of emergency medicine care and education, including active participation in Ochsner Emergency Medicine Residency didactics and social events.

As the home program for The University of Queensland Medical School (UQ), which operates in Brisbane, Australia for the first two years (MS1&2) and in New Orleans for the final two years (MS3&4), the Ochsner Emergency Department and Residency is deeply committed to medical education. They ensure an excellent educational experience for all students. Furthermore, community outreach events led by the Ochsner EM Residency are open to both UQ students and visiting students, fostering opportunities for mentorship and community engagement.

Objectives

The student should be able to:

1. Develop a list of common emergent causes for patients presenting with common emergent complaints (i.e. chest pain, abdominal pain, altered mental status).
2. Accurately describe the classic presentations of emergent causes of common complaints that patients present to the emergency department with (i.e. chest pain, abdominal pain, altered mental status).
3. Explain the initial evaluation (history and exam, diagnostic modalities) of patients presenting with common emergent complaints (i.e. chest pain, abdominal pain, altered mental status).
4. Explain the key management strategies for patients with the classic presentations of common emergent complaints (i.e. chest pain, abdominal pain, altered mental status).
5. Explain the indications, contraindications, complications and limitations of basic clinical procedures (examples include basic laceration repair and simple incision and drainage).
6. Effectively perform basic clinical procedures (examples include basic laceration repair, and simple incision and drainage).
7. Interact with patients, families and all members of the health care team in a professional manner (with respect, compassion, empathy, altruism, honesty, accountability and excellence) at all times during the clinical clerkship.

Course Outline

Visiting students will spend all their clinical time at Ochsner Medical Center, the primary training site of our Emergency Medicine residency. Students participate in direct patient care under the supervision of attendings, interns and senior residents.

There is ample opportunity to see and perform a variety of procedures. We encourage our students to be active in the care of their patients, and we expect students to present patients directly to faculty and senior residents.

Method of Evaluation

At the conclusion of each clinical shift, your faculty member will provide you with direct 1:1 feedback, and you will be provided a clinical performance evaluation. The student is evaluated through a compilation of information from the various staff and residents to whom he or she has been assigned from the standpoint of knowledge, participation, and enthusiasm. No formal examination is given. Students applying to EM residency programs may ask to have a standardized letter of evaluation (SLOE) written on their behalf by the clerkship director upon completion of the rotation.

Medical Toxicity (2 weeks)

Duration

The Ochsner Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Medical Toxicology offers a 2-week rotation for 4th year medical students as an opportunity for students to gain experience with patients seen on a medical toxicology service in an academic environment. This can be in combination with 2 weeks of emergency medicine if the student desires a 4-week rotation in total.

Objectives

The student should be able to:

1. Develop a sense of how a poisoned patient presents to the Emergency Department and progresses through course of a poisoning or overdose in the inpatient setting.
2. Accurately describe the classic presentations of common ingestions (acetaminophen, salicylates, alcohols, etc.).
3. Explain the initial evaluation (history and exam, diagnostic modalities) of patients presenting with common emergent complaints (i.e. chest pain, abdominal pain, altered mental status).
4. Explain the initial evaluation (history and exam, diagnostic modalities) of patients presenting with common toxicologic complaints (i.e. by type of xenobiotic ingested, by toxidrome, etc.).
5. Explain management strategies and various antidotal therapies for patients with classic ingestions or toxidromes
6. Explain how absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination might be affected by various poisonings.
7. Interact with patients, families and all members of the health care team in a professional manner (with respect, compassion, empathy, altruism, honesty, accountability and excellence) at all times during the clinical clerkship.

Course Outline

Visiting students will spend all their clinical time at Ochsner Medical Center. Students participate in direct patient care under the supervision of medical toxicology attendings and emergency medicine residents. We encourage our students to be active in the care of their patients, though documentation of each patient encounter through electronic medical records will not be required. We encourage students to see patients independently and then present them to senior residents and attendings. We anticipate that didactics and bedside consultations will make up much of the rotation during morning hours, with self-study encouraged in the afternoons.

Method of Evaluation

At the conclusion of the two weeks, there will be a formal presentation on a topic of the students choice, and a multiple-choice exam. Faculty members will also provide verbal feedback at the end of the rotation.