This course is designed to introduce you to emergency medicine and all the unique opportunities and challenges associated with this specialty. This will be accomplished through formal lectures, case presentations, and by primary patient care. The best way to learn about emergency medicine is to immerse yourself in the care of emergency department patients. As a sub-intern, you will be expected to evaluate patients and address their presenting complaints, initiate workups, and provide definitive therapies. Often the most critically ill patients are managed using the “team approach” which often involves EMT’s, nurses, physicians, and students. We would encourage you to observe and participate in this unique aspect of patient care. How much you learn, see, and do depends entirely on your effort and interest.
Although the overall focus of this rotation is clinical patient care, the Department of Emergency Medicine at Penn offers substantially more than just a clinical exposure to emergency medicine. The faculty that you will be working with are leaders in the country in the many subspecialties within emergency medicine. Subspecialty areas within emergency medicine including toxicology, ultrasound, pediatric emergency medicine, hyperbaric medicine, emergency medical services, and travel and occupational medicine are well represented. Penn’s emergency department is a national leader (often first) in research funding and is home to the Center for Resuscitation Science, a large clinical research enterprise, and the Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research – the health services research arm of the department. There are many fellows who serve as attending physicians, in addition to the faculty members. Keep your eyes and ears open while working clinically, and ask your attendings about what it is that they are passionate about — no matter how early or late in their training, there is a reason they have gravitated to Penn Medicine.