Structure

Core Clerkship

The core Emergency Medicine Clerkship is a four week clinical experience located at Memorial Medical Center and Saint Johns Hospital in Springfield, IL.  Students will work a number of shifts at both hospitals performing the initial evaluation of patients, developing differential diagnoses and treatment plans while continuing to follow their patients progress in the Emergency Department.  Shifts will be supervised by Emergency Medicine faculty and senior residents.  Emphasis will be placed upon becoming more comfortable with the evaluation, treatment and disposition of the acutely ill and undifferentiated patient.  We encourage learners to become immersed in the medical and trauma resuscitations.

The goal of the rotation is to expose and provide students with a variety of perspectives and aspects of working in an ED.  If not already working a shift, students are encouraged to attend EM Resident conferences on Thursday morning as well as focused lectures and skills labs.  Students will participate in core emergency medicine topics, case conferences, morbidity & mortality, quality/patient safety conferences and Grand Rounds.  Interactive experiences involving medical simulation and procedural training are also part of the didactic experience.  This time will serve to expose students to the academic and administrative opportunities possible as an Emergency Medicine physician.

During the month students will be scheduled for a nursing shift so that they may become more comfortable with the all aspects of patient care, equipment utilization and medication administration in the ED.  These experiences allow the student to better understand how all members of the patient care team interact to best serve our patients.  

Personalized Education Plan

Students looking to have more experience in Emergency Medicine during the Personalized Education Plan (PEP) may enroll in 2 or 4 week courses.  This time will be structured similar to the core clerkship with higher expectations for students to adequately assess and treat patients in the Emergency Department.  

Those considering a career in Emergency Medicine are encouraged to contact Dr Patel and Dr Waymack as early as possible to discuss their plans for the PEP period.  We encourage students to find further educational experiences outside of the Emergency Department as they complete their third year of medical school.

Other rotations that students may find beneficial would include but are not limited to:

• Trauma / surgical critical care
• Medical intensive care
• Pediatric critical care
• Anesthesiology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Plastic surgery / burn care
• Cardiology