The Leader’s Library: The Coffee Bean – Open call for participants

Life recently has been, to say the least, a hair stressful. The global pandemic, with all the resultant lifestyle upheaval, has seized a commanding presence in every minute of every day, personal and professional, and many of us are feeling the heat. There’s never been a more appropriate time then to cultivate effective coping strategies as a community, and ALiEM is here to help, with the third installment of The Leader’s Library, covering The Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change by Jon Gordon and Damon West.

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By Dina Wallin, MD|2020-05-06T16:12:42-07:00May 8, 2020|Book Club, Leaders Library|

IDEA series: The Bleeding Arm Tourniquet Simulation

Education in emergency response to trauma is a global health priority [1]. Mortality rates are nearly twice as high in patients with trauma in low-income as compared to high-income countries [2]. With uncontrolled bleeding as the number one cause of death from trauma, tourniquet application has been the focus of training programs, like the “Stop the Bleed” campaign in the United States [3]. Although understanding how to apply a tourniquet is a life-saving intervention, use of a windlass tourniquet may not be intuitive [4]. The windlass tourniquet in its simplest form is the “stick-and-rope.” Winding the stick in the tourniquet creates a mechanical advantage for providing compression. Simulation of the windlass technique can be used to teach management of uncontrolled bleeding. Here we describe a low-cost simulation model that combines low- and high-fidelity techniques to train healthcare personnel on windlass tourniquet application.

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By Lacey MenkinSmith, MD CTropMed|2020-04-12T15:16:08-07:00Apr 24, 2020|IDEA series, Medical Education, Simulation, Trauma|

EM Bound: Newsletter for medical students interested in EM

Are you a medical student, pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine (EM)? You are navigating your third and fourth years of medical school during an unprecedented time of the COVID-19 era. What if you can not get a visiting EM clerkship rotation? Are you automatically out of luck when it comes to residency applications? How do you keep apprised of timely, relevant information for residency application season? In an effort to support you and get ultra-prepared for the near future and EM internship, we are launching a monthly free email newsletter. Led by editor Dr. Sree Natesan (Assistant EM Residency Director, Duke University) and featuring an all-star, growing team of contributors, we announce the EM Bound newsletter.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2020-04-20T19:31:27-07:00Apr 21, 2020|Medical Education, Medical Student|

CRincubator Live: A Chief Resident Professional Development Learning Lab

“In every crisis, there is an opportunity.” This famous quote by Albert Einstein illustrates the opportunity to reinvent our Chief Resident Incubator (“CRincubator”) year-long experience. We had planned to retire the CRincubator as of a month ago. However, given the relative void in Chief Resident professional development opportunities this year because of physical distancing rules, we wanted to share our lessons learned and resources developed over the past 5 years. We thus announce a half-day, online, professional development learning lab opportunity to all EM Chief Residents. Come join us on May 6, 2020. Read more about the unique curriculum and our all-star speaker line-up on our CRincubator Live homepage.

By Michelle Lin, MD|2020-04-17T23:42:17-07:00Apr 18, 2020|Incubators, Professional Development|

EM Match Advice: COVID-19 and the 2020-21 Residency Application Season

With so much appropriate attention focused on getting frontline emergency providers with personal protective equipment in the COVID-19 era, one major overshadowed storyline is the uncertainty of the 2020-21 interview season for medical students applying into Emergency Medicine (EM). COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in the entire application season not only for medical students, but also medical schools, residency programs, and hospitals. The downstream effects of potentially canceling visiting (away) EM rotations and possibly even home EM rotations in the near term are dizzying. How does one obtain enough letters of recommendation? Should I even apply for visiting EM rotations? Fortunately, an experienced panel of EM program directors joins Dr. Michael Gisondi (Stanford) and Dr. Michelle Lin (UCSF) in discussing the thought processes, ongoing nuanced discussions, early available resources, and general mindset for the 2020-11 season.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2020-04-20T19:46:54-07:00Apr 4, 2020|COVID19, EM Match Advice, Podcasts|

Announcing a new curriculum for medical students: Bridge to EM

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were already planning to launch Bridge to Emergency Medicine (EM). This 8-week curriculum provides a structured learning schedule for senior medical students about to start an EM residency. For the sake of timeliness and at the request of clerkship directors, we are publishing our curriculum earlier than we planned. It currently is missing the assessment piece; however, once the quizzes are written and peer-reviewed, we will migrate Bridges to EM to ALiEMU. There, clerkship directors can monitor their students’ progress on the Educator Dashboard. Congratulations to the Bridge to EM Team, Drs. Tim Wetzel (co-lead), Christina Shenvi (co-lead), Sree Natesan, and Moises Gallegos.

By Michelle Lin, MD|2020-03-29T08:11:31-07:00Mar 28, 2020|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

Match Day! Words of Wisdom for Life

Last week, more than 2000 medical students were matched into medicine. We welcomed you, and also offered some advice for how to manage the heavy workload of intern year. For the second part of our resident match day series we will transition our focus from work to life. Intern year is a hectic and stressful time. There are a lot of new things to consider. How will you get your family settled in a new city? What are the next four years going to look like financially? How do you make time for your loved ones and keep your hobbies alive?

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By Kaitlin Bowers, DO|2020-04-20T19:49:33-07:00Mar 27, 2020|EM Match Advice, Wellness|