We thank Mr. Wu, PA-C, MHS (President, the Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants [SEMPA]) for his insightful letter in response to our paper, “Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Postgraduate Training Programs: Program Characteristics and Curricula.”
We appreciate the authors conducting research describing EMPA postgraduate training program characteristics and agree that more research is needed in this field. As the largest national organization representing EMPAs, we would like to expand on a few points regarding these programs and overall EMPA practice.
This paper presents the outcomes of efforts by the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine’s Research Directors Interest Group to understand emergency physicians’ attitudes and opinions on resident scholarly activity.
We believe that students are well positioned to effect change via QI initiatives and offer our experience to support their recommendations, alongside further suggestions to aid implementation and integration of medical student QIPs into clinical practice.
We read with interest the paper by Bohrer-Clancy et al.1 regarding variables in applications to emergency medicine residency that correlate with “adverse outcomes” in training programs. We have some concerns regarding the methods of this paper, and therefore the validity and generalizability of its results.
In 2014, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine more specifically defined the skills required of graduating medical students. These skill sets are rooted in the United States’ and Canada’s movement toward a competency-based undergraduate medical education (UME) and are termed the Core “entrustable professional activities” (EPAs)
We read with interest the comprehensive review by Ford et al.,1 which was published in August 2016 issue of the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. The authors aimed to review the best available evidence regarding the effect of leadership and teamwork in trauma and resuscitation on patient care and how effective leadership can be measured.
Morris and Schroeder have highlighted the need for a uniform and comprehensive national education program for emergency medicine residents doing international rotations. As faculty for a newly released course, The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Health, we wanted to call your attention to this innovative resource for preparing resident physicians, medical students, and other trainees to participate in safe and sustainable global health rotations.
Volume 15, Issue 7, November 2014
Özgür Kızılca, MD et al.
To the Editor:
We read with great interest the article by Riddell et al.(1) and we believe the study addresses a very important clinical question; however; we have some remarks and questions below.
Volume 15, Issue 7, November 2014
Jeff Riddell, MD, et al.
In Reply:
We thank the authors of the letter for their insightful comments.
There were 98 patients with bedside US evidence of hydronephrosis and 11 patients with evidence of a stone. Only one patient with US evidence of stone had no hydronephrosis. The total number of patients with emergency department (ED) bedside US evidence of stone was 99. This correct number is consistent with Table 4.
Iyer et al. have presented an interesting study of the usefulness of a deliberate apprenticeship model in the pediatric emergency department for third year students.(1) The deliberate apprenticeship model appeared from both the quantitative and qualitative results to show benefits of deliberate apprenticeship.
Gable et al have presented an interesting study into the effectiveness of an educational intervention involving simulation and didactic teaching.(1) Certainly the problems with caring for obese patients are not going to go away quickly – so it is vital that we have adequate numbers of fully-trained staff that can care for them.
