10 Tips on How to Succeed Your First Year Out After Residency Graduation
If you are graduating from an EM residency this year, you may be feeling nervous (or petrified) about your first shift out on your own. You’re wondering how you can gain the trust of the nurses and doctors at your new hospital. Perhaps you are wondering how you will keep learning without the residency leadership forcing articles and lectures on you. In this post we will give you our top 10 tips, each with a practical pearl, for how to succeed your first year out. These keys to success will help keep you from making common mistakes, blowing your chance [+]
60 Second Soapbox: Shared Decision Making, Backboards, and Caring for the Family
Its’ time for another installment of 60 Second Soapbox! Each episode, one lucky individual gets exactly 1 minute to present their rant-of-choice to the world. Any topic is on the table – clinical, academic, economic, or whatever else may interest an EM-centric audience. We carefully remix your audio to add an extra splash of drama and excitement. Even more exciting, participants get to challenge 3 of their peers to stand on a soapbox of their own! [+]
IDEA Series: Interactive Practice Oral Examination Case Construction
The Problem The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM), and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) require successful completion of an oral examination as part of the certification process for the specialty of emergency medicine. Residents are seldom taught explicitly about the process of developing oral board examinations. While deliberate and guided practice can improve performance in such examinations, understanding the design and structure of an oral examination can also ease anxiety about the experience. [+]
Our “User’s Guide to the EM Match Advice Web Series” is published in WestJEM
It’s that time of year again… when the sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom… and new senior medical students are preparing for next year’s Match. Emergency Medicine (EM) remains a very popular specialty choice. EM enjoys a 99% annual fill rate in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) Main Residency Match, with approximately 80% of positions going to U.S. allopathic senior medical students. Students seek many sources of career advice when preparing for their EM clerkships and the residency interview process. Unfortunately, career advice often comes from near-peers and medical school faculty members in other specialties, rather than EM residency directors and [+]
Ultrasound For The Win! – 20F with First Trimester Vaginal Bleeding #US4TW
Welcome to another ultrasound-based case, part of the “Ultrasound For The Win!” (#US4TW) Case Series. In this case series, we focus on a real clinical case where point-of-care ultrasound changed the management of a patient’s care or aided in the diagnosis. In this case, a 20-year-old woman presents with first-trimester vaginal bleeding. [+]
I am Dr. Michael Ritchie, EM/ICU Attending: How I Stay Healthy in EM
Dr. Michael Ritchie is an emergency and ICU physician from Brooklyn, NY. When he is not busy working in the emergency department or ICU, Dr. Ritchie, can be found training for marathons, or keeping fit by keeping up his ball game. Ever wonder how to occupy your time on those long subway rides, he’s got some tips for you! Here’s how he stays healthy in EM! [+]
MEdIC Series: Case of the Solo Senior – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary
The Case of the Solo Senior outlined a scenario of an emergency attending who questioned the common consultant call-etiquette of not activating back-up call, whether that be another resident or the attending physician, on a busy call shift when the “solo senior” is obviously overwhelmed. This month, the MEdIC team (Tamara McColl, Teresa Chan, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Eve Purdy, John Eicken, Alkarim Velji, 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 expert opinions. Thank-you to all participants for contributing to the very rich discussions surrounding this case! [+]
Wellness and Resiliency during Residency: EM is a career with unresolved stories
“We do make a difference, but not just in the setting of resuscitating critically ill or injured people, but in putting people on the pathway to health. We often get cheated out of the ending of the movie. We don’t see the romantic side of what we’ve helped facilitate. We certainly don’t get credit for it.” – Dr. Richard Cantor There are lots of reasons why Emergency Medicine (EM) has one of the highest burnout rates compared to other medical specialties.1,2 We have long and erratic hours, difficult patients, and an increasing number of bureaucratic tasks such as clicking boxes in [+]
PEM Pearls: Search & Rescue of Ear Foreign Bodies – Picking the Right Tool
While ear foreign bodies can happen at any age, the majority occur in children less than 7 years of age.1 The younger the patient, the less likely they are cooperative with the exam and, therefore, the less chance of successful foreign body removal. The first attempt at removal is the best, so it is important to make it count. Similarly, different types of foreign bodies call for different “tools” for removal. It is important to understand when to attempt removal in the emergency department (ED) and what tools are available. This blog post will help you optimize your first pass success at foreign body removal by [+]
I am Dr. Michael Schick, Co-Director of Technology Enabled Active Learning: How I Stay Healthy in EM
Dr. Michael Schick is an emergency physician from the University of California. Dr. Schick keeps well by maintaining resiliency and always trying to find that fine balance. When he is not busy in the department, he can be found staying active or spending time with his family. Here’s how he stays healthy in EM! [+]







