EM Bound

No matter how much you eagerly anticipate your first shift in the ED as a medical student, it is also intimidating. For the first time you are presented with a completely undifferentiated patient and asked to come up with a differential, plan, and disposition. No more "Go see the COPD exacerbation in the ED" or "Why does this CT show a case of appendicitis?" Medical school does not train you to think like an emergency physician. Completing a history and physical, then ordering lab tests and imaging, waiting for them to arrive, interpreting them, and finally making a diagnosis and treating the patient is not an option when they are bleeding out before your eyes (or having a stroke, or an MI, not breathing, seizing, possibly bleeding in their brain, foaming at the mouth, loss of consciousness, etc.). In the ED, it is not your job to come up with an iron clad diagnosis, it is your job to rule out life threatening conditions or treat them if they exist. And to do th...

One of the skills most frequently taught and asked for by EM bound students is suturing. It's also one of the ways to shine as student rotating in the Emergency Department. Repairing lacerations is a common task for most emergency physicians on an average shift and is part of our core knowledge, but it is also time consuming. Offering to assist is a great way to help your EM team on shift. In many academic centers complex lacerations involving the face and other cosmetically important areas might involve a plastics or OMFS consult, but not always. On one shift in a rural hospital I covered I once spent two and half hours suturing an ear back together that had been blown apart by a firecracker. Here are some key pieces of advice and my favorite online resource to get you started so you're ready to jump in and help on your next shift. Spend some time at home learning and practicing. You won't be much help if you don't have at least some of the basic skills u...