Emergency Medicine is a critical area for the development of many skills essential to the practice of medicine, no matter what specialty medical students choose. Our department offers several opportunities for medical students to learn more about our specialty and subspecialties. In addition to a mandatory month in our department for Emory students, we offer electives in emergency medicine, toxicology, research, ultrasound, and pre-hospital.
Members of the Emergency Medicine faculty teach several School of Medicine courses including:
- Physiology
- Biochemistry
- Pathophysiology
- Pharmacology
- Problem-Based Learning
- Cardiology
Emergency Medicine faculty organize and teach courses in the second and third year of the medical school curriculum including "How to Save a Life", and the M2 elective "Thrills and Spills".
Within the Emergency Department, our medical students gain skills in refining history and physical assessment of the patient. Our students form the ability to assess the clinical situation rapidly and they develop both treatment and evaluation plans thoroughly. Emergency medical training is crucial to medical students because the emergency department is one of the few clinical venues where students can learn the management of the acutely ill patient.
While they are in the Emergency Department, our students develop procedural skills invaluable to their practice of medicine and treatment of patients. In this era of managed care, our students develop skills that will assist them while they learn to manage a patient through the maze of managed care, i.e. limited workups, who to admit, etc.
By the end of a month with us, even students who are not interested in a career in Emergency Medicine will understand the unique problems within the Emergency Department and they will be capable of handling acutely ill patients deftly. Our students who do pursue a career in Emergency Medicine will have the beginning of a firm foundation upon which to build in the future.