Silence is not an option: Addressing structural racism in medical education

The year 2020 has been a year of upheaval. The COVID pandemic revealed disparities in healthcare and its effects on marginalized groups such as the Black community. The pervasive effects of structural racism affect all of us, including in medical education. We cannot and must not remain silent. As we honor Juneteenth, #BlackLivesMatter, and #WhiteCoatsforBlackLives, let us reflect on ways we can address racial injustice in our direct environment.

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By Al'ai Alvarez, MD|2020-06-19T08:37:15-07:00Jun 19, 2020|Academic, Emergency Medicine, Life|

EM Match Advice: Program Directors Reflect on the 2020 Residency Match

How competitive was the 2020 EM residency match? Although COVID-19 has changed some of the rules and planning for the 2020-21 residency application season, historical data still remains a helpful guide. We have updated our annual table summarizing how competitive the EM residency match was, based on National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) data.

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2021-07-01T10:01:23-07:00Jun 7, 2020|EM Match Advice, Podcasts|

All-EM Residency Graduation Extravaganza: Save the Date

We invite all of you to join the first-ever all-EM residency graduation event to celebrate the #EMClassof2020 who are embarking on their professional careers in an especially tumultuous time in history. Although this online event cannot replace the experience of an in-person departmental event, we hope that we can all take a collective pause to realize how connected we are in EM and even find some joy in these dark times. As a testament to this momentous “leveling-up” event, world-class speakers, Dr. Esther Choo, Dr. Mel Herbert, and Dr. Amal Mattu will headline a series of well-wishes and inspirational words. We have pulled out all the stops and spared no expense to honor YOU, the future of EM!

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2020-06-08T16:15:47-07:00Jun 5, 2020|Academic, Social Media & Tech|

Social Distancing Simulation: Tips for Leading a Virtual Session With Student Learners

We’ve all had to get a bit creative over the past few weeks. COVID-19 has ushered in an era of not only pushing healthcare workers and hospitals into uncharted territory, but also challenging the structure and delivery of medical education. Simulation education is one of many teaching modalities that is affected by this change given its case-based, in-person structure with a team of learners. These characteristics unfortunately violate the 6-foot rule of social distancing. While traditional simulation is not typically conceptualized as a virtual modality, many of its principals can be successfully adapted for remote learning.

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By Ashley Rider, MD|2020-05-31T19:16:34-07:00Jun 1, 2020|COVID19, Education Articles, Simulation|

IDEA Series: Use of gamification through Clue: Pediatric Rash Edition

Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians care for anyone, with anything, at any time. This includes pediatric patients as well as adults. For those without advanced pediatric training, “sick kids” can be quite intimidating. Rashes in the pediatric population are often benign, but in rare cases they portend significant illness. Rashes are also frequent chief complaints; In 2015, there were 1,452,300 pediatric ED visits for “skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders” [1]. We sought to improve the teaching of pediatric rashes in our residency curriculum.

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By Peter Tomaselli, MD|2020-05-05T16:22:24-07:00May 13, 2020|Dermatology, IDEA series, Pediatrics|

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|2021-09-15T11:42:21-07:00May 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|