ECG interpretation is a cornerstone of Emergency Medicine (EM). It requires both rapid identification of life-threatening abnormalities and fastidious attention to detail. This pairing can intimidate some junior learners, and identifying an effective and engaging method for teaching ECGs is important to resident education. We report a teaching method that addresses this problem with an annual residency ECG competition.
The purpose of the SplintER series is to teach the fundamentals and introduce advanced concepts of splinting to the Emergency Medicine (EM) professional. Humans have been splinting their injuries since 1300 B.C.1 Although the fundamentals have not changed, splint selection and application require some thoughtful consideration. A 2017 prospective, observational study in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics demonstrated that more than 90% of splints applied in the Emergency Department were inappropriate (30% applied by EM attendings), as evaluated by orthopaedic surgeons.2 While that number may not be representative in your institution, it certainly highlights the inadequacies that many of us feel when approaching a splint!
Difficult airways, including those that are edematous, burned, soiled, or traumatic, pose one of the greatest procedural challenges for emergency physicians. Furthermore, unanticipated difficult airways represent 5-15% of intubations in the ED. Emergency medicine residents gain experience with difficult airways largely through hands-on practice while caring for critically ill patients. The relatively low frequency of complex intubations, however, necessitates an educational model that extends beyond the ED and can be shared with multiple learners.
(more…)
We are proud to announce the return of the Annual ALiEM Awards! Started in 2016, this was the first in its kind to officially recognize the hard work and creative energy that is required in the generation of social media educational content. We are excited to bring it back to shine the spotlight on another year’s worth of high performers and game changers in medical education!
(more…)
The ALiEM Team is happy to announce yet another eBook publication: the first volume in the Education Theory Made Practical series. This book was a labor of love written by the inaugural 2016-17 Faculty Incubator class. We are so very proud of all our Faculty Incubator alumni who made this happen. Their hard work has been compiled in this FREE, peer-reviewed eBook. We sincerely feel that it will be useful for all the educators out there, wrestling with the issue of integrating theory into practice.
It is with distinct pleasure that we announce our newest ALiEM team member, Dr. Derek Monette. Derek is a senior EM resident at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program, newsletter editor for the 2017-18 ALiEM Chief Resident Incubator, and made his EM Match Advice debut talking about changing specialties in EM. Today we announce that he has accepted the newest role as the 2017-18 ALiEM Deputy Editor in Chief (EIC).
It has been 4 years since we launched the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) Series, and we are very proud to have had 4 years of excellent engagement and participation from the FOAM audience with our interactive monthly discussions. This season has been a whirlwind. Together, we have explored challenging patient, learner, physician wellness, ethical, and assessment conundrums. We want to thank all of those who have written cases, acted as experts, and commented on the cases.
We are thrilled to announce that a compilation of the third MEdIC season (last year’s cases) is available for free download.