CONFERENCES

Conference is held every Wednesday from 9:00am to 2:30pm. An essential component of the resident experience, it allows time for serious academic discussion and inquiry in a relaxed and interactive environment. Residents and faculty look forward to the weekly meetings as both a time for education and a chance to come together as a group. Conference days are protected during the entire first year, including off-service rotations, and for the majority of the second and third years.

A thorough curriculum-the Core Content Educational Presentation Series (CCEPS)-has been carefully created for Wednesday Conference over the years. This consists of formal didactic sessions, grand rounds with locally and nationally renowned guest speakers, anatomy and procedure laboratories, resident case presentations, and monthly morbidity and mortality review. Also, experts in fields such as law and business are incorporated into the rotation of speakers to assure broad education in today's medical culture. Furthermore, 4 hours per month are spent reviewing and critiquing current emergency medicine literature and in the teaching of research methodology and statistics.

Another strength of the program is the frequent attendance of city-wide lecture events in lieu of traditional conference. The EM culture in the city is expansive and our residents benefit from its scale and cohesiveness. Approximately once a month residents attend symposia at various institutions around the city. Recent examples include forums on Emergency Disaster Relief in the Third World, organized by the Columbia School of Public Health, the annual NYCACEP Resident Conference, and lectures on Bioterrorism and Mass Casualty Preparedness presented by experts from departments around the city. We have also hosted similar events at Methodist. These conferences serve as an important opportunity to network with colleagues as well as interact with health professionals in other fields.

Finally, the Department has a 3-year curriculum empolying the Laerdal SimMan™ patient simulator for resident education and evaluation. With the simulator, realistic patient encounters will challenge residents' clinical decision-making abilities and allow them to practice a myriad of procedural skills such as difficult airway management, chest tube placement, and diagnostic peritoneal lavage, among others.