Archives

Targeted Simulation-based Leadership Training for Trauma Team Leaders

Rosenman, MD, et al.

Traditionally, healthcare curricula have included leadership as a small component of broader teamwork training, with very few examples of leadership-focused curricula. The objective of this work is to describe a novel simulation-based team leadership curriculum that easily adapts to individual learners.

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Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Learners in Emergency Medicine

Meeks, PhD, et al.

In this account, the authors reflect on the successful experiences of a visiting DHoH (deaf and hard of hearing) medical student in an academic EM rotation at a Level I trauma hospital that serves a diverse population, and they identify the potential challenges for DHoH students in an EM setting, offer solutions including reasonable accommodations, and provide commentary on the legal requirements for providing full and equal access for DHoH students.

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Provider Workforce

Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Postgraduate Training Programs: Program Characteristics and Training Curricula

Kraus, DO, et al.

The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the current state of EMPA postgraduate training and to describe program characteristics and curriculum components. We conducted a cross-sectional study of EMPA postgraduate training programs using data from websites and contacting individual programs to provide program characteristics and curriculum components.

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Identifying Gaps and Launching Resident Wellness Initiatives: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit

Zaver, MD, et al.

In 2017 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) updated the Common Program Requirements to focus more on resident wellbeing. To address this issue, one working group from the 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit (RWCS) focused on wellness program innovations and initiatives in emergency medicine (EM) residency programs.

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Exploratory Application of Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality Devices for Acute Care Procedure Training

Kobayashi, MD, et al.

Investigators initiated an exploratory program to enable the study of AR/MR use-cases in acute care clinical and instructional settings. Investigators implemented a core holoimaging pipeline infrastructure and modular open-access repository to generate and enable access to modular holoimages during exploratory pilot stage applications for invasive procedure training that featured innovative AR/MR techniques on off-the-shelf headset devices.

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Creating a Vision for Education Leadership

Martin, MD, MBA, et al.

This brief innovative report will provide tools and examples to articulate a vision statement for education leadership and the steps needed for implementation. The objective of this innovation is for the readers to develop their own vision, mission and core values, and to begin to consider how they will develop their strategy and platform for implementation. While these VMCV may be aligned with your organization’s VMCV, it is important to define your own. Examples of VMCV from education leaders will be presented. This concept is based on a workshop from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) in 2017 that was developed by key education leaders in the field of EM.

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Calling All Curators: A Novel Approach to Individualized Interactive Instruction

Pensa, MD, et al.

We describe a digital course in EM, “Asynchrony,” as an approach to FOAM to meet these III standards. Asynchrony is geared toward EM residents using FOAM and other online learning tools, curated by faculty into narrative, topic-specific educational modules. Each module requires residents to complete a topic assignment, participate in a discussion board, and pass a quiz to earn ACGME-approved III didactic credit; all of this is tracked and filed in an online learning management system.

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Development of a Novel Ultrasound-guided Peritonsillar Abscess Model for Simulation Training

Ng, MD, MPH, et al.

Peritonsillar abscess (PTA) is the most common deep space infection of the head and neck presenting to emergency departments.1 No commercial PTA task trainer exists for simulation training. Thus, resident physicians often perform their first PTA needle aspiration in the clinical setting, knowing that carotid artery puncture and hemorrhage are serious and devastating complications. While several low-fidelity PTA task trainers have been previously described, none allow for ultrasound image acquisition.6–9 We sought to create a cost-effective and realistic task trainer that allows trainees to acquire both diagnostic ultrasound and needle aspiration skills while draining a peritonsillar abscess.

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Anything but Shadowing! Early Clinical Reasoning in Emergency Department Improves Clinical Skills

Royan, MPH, et al.

Transitioning from the pre-clinical environment to clerkships poses a challenge to students and educators alike. Students along with faculty developed the Clinical Reasoning Elective (CRE) to provide pre-clinical students exposure to patients in the emergency department and the opportunity to build illness scripts and practice clinical skills with longitudinal mentorship in a low-stakes environment before entering clerkships. It is a voluntary program. Each year, the CRE has received overwhelming positive feedback from students. The objective of this study is to determine if the CRE improved students’ clinical skills and reported comfort in their skills.

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Interprofessional Emergency Training Leads to Changes in the Workplace

Eisenmann, MD, et al.

Preventable mistakes occur frequently and can lead to patient harm and death. The emergency department (ED) is notoriously prone to such errors, and evidence suggests that improving teamwork is a key aspect to reduce the rate of error in acute care settings. Only a few strategies are in place to train team skills and communication in interprofessional situations. Our goal was to conceptualize, implement, and evaluate a training module for students of three professions involved in emergency care. The objective was to sensitize participants to barriers for their team skills and communication across professional borders.

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A Novel Approach to Medical Student Peer-assisted Learning Through Case-based Simulations

Jauregui, MD, et al.

Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is the development of new knowledge and skills through active learning support from peers. Benefits of PAL include introduction of teaching skills for students, creation of a safe learning environment, and efficient use of faculty time. We present a novel approach to PAL in an emergency medicine (EM) clerkship curriculum using an inexpensive, tablet-based app for students to cooperatively present and perform low-fidelity, case-based simulations that promotes accountability for student learning, fosters teaching skills, and economizes faculty presence.

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A Cognitive Apprenticeship-Based Faculty Development Intervention for Emergency Medicine Educators

Merritt, MD, MPH, et al.

Emergency medicine (EM) trainees must achieve expertise across the broad spectrum of clinical skills critical to EM practice, achieving competence in only a few short years. While EM training includes didactics, self-directed learning, and periodic assessments, the key learning occurs while caring for patients under the supervision of experienced physicians. While early medical education often focuses on transmission and retention of data, learners must ultimately gain practical experience applying clinical reasoning, learning to work in teams, and approaching complicated problems and procedures. The understanding and strategic implementation of problem-solving strategies, heuristic approaches, and metacognitive skills leads to the type of understanding that allows the novice to become the expert.

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Filling the Gap: Simulation-based Crisis Resource Management Training for Emergency Medicine Residents

Parsons, MD, et al.

In today’s team-oriented healthcare environment, high-quality patient care requires physicians to possess not only medical knowledge and technical skills but also crisis resource management (CRM) skills. In emergency medicine (EM), the high acuity and dynamic environment makes CRM skills of physicians particularly critical to healthcare team success. The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medicine Education Core Competencies that guide residency program curriculums include CRM skills; however, EM residency programs are not given specific instructions as to how to teach these skills to their trainees. This article describes a simulation-based CRM course designed specifically for novice EM residents.

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Contact Information

WestJEM/ Department of Emergency Medicine
UC Irvine Health

3800 W Chapman Ave Ste 3200
Orange, CA 92868, USA
Phone: 1-714-456-6389
Email: editor@westjem.org

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WestJEM
ISSN: 1936-900X
e-ISSN: 1936-9018

CPC-EM
ISSN: 2474-252X

Our Philosophy

Emergency Medicine is a specialty which closely reflects societal challenges and consequences of public policy decisions. The emergency department specifically deals with social injustice, health and economic disparities, violence, substance abuse, and disaster preparedness and response. This journal focuses on how emergency care affects the health of the community and population, and conversely, how these societal challenges affect the composition of the patient population who seek care in the emergency department. The development of better systems to provide emergency care, including technology solutions, is critical to enhancing population health.