MEdIC: Case of Cognitive Overload – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary

The Case of Cognitive Overload outlined a scenario of a junior resident dealing with the harsh realities of working in emergency medicine when she experiences the negative impacts of cognitive overload while caring for a sick patient. This month, the MEdIC team (Tamara McColl, Teresa Chan, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Eve Purdy, John Eicken, and Brent Thoma), hosted a discussion around this case with insights from the ALiEM community. We are proud to present to you the Curated Community Commentary and our 2 expert opinions. Thank-you to all participants for contributing to the very rich discussions surrounding this case!

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By Tamara McColl, MD FRCPC|2017-08-21T04:52:55-07:00Oct 14, 2016|MEdIC series|

New initiative: Wellness Think Tank for EM residents

The issues of wellness, burnout, and resiliency have snowballed across nearly all health professions. Emergency Medicine (EM) specifically was singled out as one of the specialties with highest risk for burnout at >60%.¹ There has been much discussion around the general “UN-wellness” of medicine, and we now feel that there is a dire need for action. Instead of tackling the entire spectrum of wellness throughout medicine, we wanted to focus on EM residents. As a response to this need, we are proud to announce the launch of the ALiEM Wellness Think Tank, which is a private virtual community comprised of EM residents across North America. What better stakeholder group to address the world of EM residency wellness than EM residents themselves?

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By Nicole Battaglioli, MD|2016-12-22T06:41:15-08:00Oct 3, 2016|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech, Wellness, Wellness Think Tank|

MEdIC Case: The Case of the Cognitive Overload

Welcome to season 4, episode 1 of the ALiEM Medical Education in Cases (MEdIC) series! Our team (Drs. Tamara McColl, Teresa Chan, John Eicken, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Eve Purdy, and Brent Thoma) is pleased to welcome you to our online community of practice where we discuss the practice of academic medicine!

In this month’s case, a junior resident deals with some of the harsh realities of emergency medicine when she experiences the negative impacts of cognitive overload when caring for a sick patient.

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By Tamara McColl, MD FRCPC|2017-01-20T12:30:40-08:00Sep 30, 2016|MEdIC series|

Ultrasound for the Win! Emergency Medicine Cases: Volume 1 Book

The Ultrasound for the Win! book, available now on Amazon and coming soon to the Apple iBooks Store, is a compilation of real ultrasound cases that have been featured on the blog’s Ultrasound for the Win! Series.

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By Jeffrey Shih, MD, RDMS|2017-07-19T00:06:32-07:00Sep 23, 2016|Medical Education, Ultrasound, Ultrasound for the Win|

10 Tips to Become a Successful Interviewer: Do’s and Don’ts

As fall approaches, senior medical students and Emergency Medicine (EM) residency programs alike are beginning to prepare for the upcoming interview season. As part of the process, many programs have current residents interview potential candidates – their future colleagues! For most residents, though they have often been the interviewee, this is the first time they have filled the role of the interviewer. Among all the busy shifts and learning everything you need to know to be an amazing EM physician, there is little time for practice or formal training. To help, we have compiled our top “10 Tips to Become a Successful Interviewer.” Here’s to making this interview season the best one yet!

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By Meg Pusateri, MD|2016-10-26T17:04:15-07:00Sep 15, 2016|Medical Education|

IDEA Series: An Asynchronous Curriculum for the Resident as Teacher

The Problem

While residents may accumulate teaching tips and techniques during the course of their training by observing their mentors at work, learning how to educate while balancing the needs of a busy emergency department (ED) is a difficult skill to acquire. Unfortunately, excellent clinical skills do not always equate to effective teaching skills. With training, however, even the initially reluctant teacher can begin to effectively engage learners in the ED. An elective aimed toward developing the resident as a teacher allows residents to acquire and practice skills that will be particularly helpful for those that ultimately take on academic roles with teaching requirements.

As dedicated faculty time was in limited supply, our previous Resident As Teacher elective simply offered residents time to practice teaching with junior residents and medical students without offering significant structure or substance for those who wished to enhance their skillset as educators and acquire new knowledge.

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By Benjamin Schnapp, MD|2020-03-12T11:58:03-07:00Sep 9, 2016|IDEA series, Medical Education|

EM Match Advice: Is Emergency Medicine right for you?

In this tenth installment of the EM Match Advice series, we go back to the beginning. As a medical student, how does one know if emergency medicine is the right career choice? Is it all guts, glory, and excitement? Are ONLY working 28 hours per week? Listen to this fascinating discussion with our panelists, facilitated by Dr. Michael Gisondi (EM Program Director at Northwestern). The panelists include Dr. Michele Dorfsman (PD at University of Pittsburg), Dr. Brian Levine (PD at Christiana Care), Dr. Larissa Velez (PD at UT Southwestern), and Dr. Michelle Lin (ALiEM/UCSF).