CURRICULUM

We are proud of the curriculum we have developed and our goal is to graduate EM-trained physicians who will become leading clinicians, educators, researchers, and administrators within the scope of emergency medicine. Our curriculum is designed to provide residents with progressively graded clinical, administrative, and teaching responsibilities throughout the duration of the program. This comprehensive combination gives residents everything they need to develop into highly qualified emergency physicians.

Each resident will also be paired with a faculty mentor who will insure that the resident achieves the objectives set forth in the curriculum. Mentor/Resident relationships are both professional and friendly and every effort will be made to allow residents to achieve maximum results. Further, Methodist has a strong and motivated core faculty (all Diplomats of the American Board of Emergency Medicine) with a variety of interests including clinical care, teaching, administration, research, pre-hospital care, and point-of-care limited ultrasonography. These individuals intrinsically add depth to the curriculum, both formal and clinical.

At Methodist most procedures are the Intern's domain. As a general rule, intubations go to interns and interns manage the head of the bed during codes. LPs, central lines, chest tubes, etc., are also the domain of the Intern. Usually there is no question to this process. It is simply something that happens because Second Years and Seniors feel comfortable with these procedures. Occasionally a more senior resident will chose to do a procedure on their patient for the sake of emergency, or occasional practice, or while scheduled without an intern, but generally they enjoy the role of passing on knowledge they have already mastered. More complicated and less frequent procedures such as transvenous pacemaker placement, thorocotomy, and thorocentesis, as well as running codes, are still the domain of the more senior residents. Overall, this format is very effective and allows interns to obtain and practice important skills from the very beginning in a teaching-friendly environment.

SHIFTS

Shifts are 8:00 to 8:00 and first years work 18 shifts per 4 weeks, second years 17, and third years 16. In addition, conference is held from 9:00am to 3:00pm on Wednesdays for everyone that is not covering the department. In reality, a typical rotation schedule can be envisioned like this: At the very best, a Third Year works 16 shifts including working during conference days for a total of 16 days at the hospital per 28 day rotation. As the most demanding schedule, a First Year works 18 shifts plus attends 4 conferences for a total of 22 of 28 days at the hospital. Typical months generally fall somewhere in the middle of these two scenarios. Shifts are scheduled to minimize the switching between days and nights, and usually this happens only once a month.

Off-service rotations are generally very resident-friendly and first years spend no time on medical or surgical wards. These rotations were done away with as a result of resident input and the time was redistributed to more academically valuable rotations such as NICU and increased time in the department. First years never work Tuesday night, Wednesday during conference, or Wednesday night. This provides a night of the week that everyone has off as a group. Second and Third Years are more often scheduled to cover the department during these shifts.

FIRST YEAR		SECOND YEAR			THIRD YEAR
Program	Weeks		Program	Weeks		Program	Weeks
EM Orientation	4		Adult ED	28		Adult ED (w/ mixed Peds)	32
Adult ED	20		Trauma (BR)	4		Trauma (BR)	4
Labor and Delivery	2		MICU	4		Elective	4
NICU	2		SICU	4		Toxicology	4
Trauma (BR)	4		CCU	4		Research / Admin.	4
Peds EM	4		Peds EM (BR)	4		Vacation	4
Ortho (BR)	4		Vacation	4
Optho (NYH)	2
EMS	2
Ultrasound	2				(BR) - Brookdale (NYH) - New York Hospital
Anesthesia	2
Vacation	4