This is unpublished

Orientation

Scheduled the first Monday of your rotation. Attendance is mandatory. Four weeks prior to the start of your clerkship you will be emailed site-specific instructions.

Clinical

As the ED is open 24/7, students can expect to work weekends, holidays, and night shifts.

Please review the Work Hours Policy for Required Clerkships for guidelines on medical student staffing in the ED. 

In order to best accommodate shift trades and stay within UW School of Medicine's work hours policy you must request approval for any shift trades 2 business days before the day of the scheduled shift you want to trade out of. Our office is closed on the weekends and holidays, so please keep this in mind when requesting a shift exchange. In an emergency situation where you cannot reach our office, please email the Clerkship Director.  

HMC/UWMC (MED EM 606)

Fourteen shifts total:

  • 4 x 8-hour shifts at UWMC. Shift times will be 6 am-2 pm, 2 pm-10 pm, and 10 pm-6 am.
  • 10 x 8-hour shifts at HMC, comprising 3 trauma and 7 medicine shifts.  Shift times will be 6 am-2 pm, 2 pm-10 pm, and 10 pm-6 am.
  • Students should complete a chart for each patient. When reporting to an attending, students can chart in the patient chart. When reporting to a senior resident, students should complete the Medical Student EM Documentation form without patient identifiers, print in ED, and review it with the resident.

HMC Student Role on Trauma Shifts:

Please review this page which outlines the student's role on a trauma shift.

WWAMI

Please contact your site administrator for details.

IV CEX

During your clerkship, you will have an IV Clinical Evaluation Exercise (CEX). You will be taught to start an IV and then have a chance to perform it. During one of your first ED shifts, please ask a nurse to walk you through placing an IV. Then complete the IV CEX form and send it to the Clerkship Manager. IV CEX Form

 

Required Reading and Labs

Our clerkship teaching involves WWAMI-wide online content and discussion board. Seattle area students will additionally have skills and case labs.

CDEM M4 Approach To

Students are required to read the CDEM M4 Approach To: Abdominal Pain, Altered Mental Status, Cardiac Arrest, Chest Pain, GI Bleed, Headache, Poisonings, Shortness of Breath, Shock, Trauma, and Sepsis. 

Ultrasound

Toxicology

HMC/UWMC, Swedish, & VA Puget Sound

Skills/Case Labs:  Held the first and second week of the clerkship from 8 am-12 pm at the Harborview campus. Meet at HMC WISH, the 3rd floor of the Ninth and Jefferson Building (NJB).

Attendance and participation in the above is mandatory. Failure to attend labs without an excused absence, watch lectures, or participate in discussion boards will result in a "fail" for a final grade. We do not allow absences from labs or lectures for residency interviews.

2023-24 Orientation, Lab, and Exam Dates 

2024-25 Orientation, Lab, and Exam Dates

Bioethics Essay

There are many ethical dilemmas faced in the ED on a daily basis, such as in this clerkship bioethical reading. Pick one such situation you encountered during your EM clerkship and describe what you learned from it. You may prewrite your bioethics essay, 500 words maximum, then copy and paste it into the OneDrive link sent to you by the clerkship administrator. Your bioethics essay must be posted by the 3rd Wednesday of the clerkship. You are also required to respond to two other posts/comments on the OneDrive document on others’ bioethical essays by the 4th Wednesday of the clerkship.

Please be mindful of patient privacy concerns. Please do NOT post any identifiable patient information that could compromise patient confidentiality.  Specifically, do not post names, addresses, exact age (range is fine—i.e. 20-25yo male), specific date, hospital, full-face photographs or any other details that would allow someone to identify the patient from your post.

LCME Required Experiences

There are five patient presentations and two procedures required for clerkship LCME uniformity. Please note these below and do your best to see a patient in each category early in your clerkship.

You will log your required experiences via E*Value, identifying which of these patient presentations and procedures were completed (hopefully all of them). This is required for you to receive a grade in the course. If you are unable to suture during your rotation, please use the NEJM website as an alternative method to complete this requirement, and for all other required experiences, please review the subject materials on the CDEM Curriculum website.

Patient Presentations

  1. Abdominal pain
  2. Altered mental status
  3. Chest pain
  4. Shortness of breath
  5. Headache 

Procedures

  1. Laceration repair
  2. Peripheral IV Start