Emergency Medicine Rotation | Tips and Helpful Resources

via Google Images

I finished up my Emergency Medicine rotation a little over a week ago. It was definitely overwhelming at times, but I saw and learned a lot. Here are some tips and resources that I found helpful during my rotation!

1. Follow the residents around! // This depends on your rotation site of course, but I found that most residents, physicians, and PAs would be so busy that they forgot I was there. I learned to just follow them around everywhere, so I didn't miss out on anything!

2. Good pediatric resources // One of the residents I worked with showed me these two websites that are helpful when dealing with pediatric patients. Bonepit.com shows you normal x-rays for different ages. CHOP's Clinical Pathways are also very helpful. You can click on "Emergency" to limit the clinical pathways to only emergency medicine related clinical pathways.

3. Helpful apps // I found WikEM, QuickEM, and Family Practice Notebook apps helpful during my EM rotation. QuickEM was the most helpful and easiest to use. It gives a list of common chief complaints in the ED with information on differentials, history, physical exam, tests, and treatments. EMqBank is a pretty good app for practice questions if you have some down time during a shift.

4. Night shifts // I had to work 3 night shifts during my rotation. The transition into nights was not hard, but trying to transition back to a normal schedule after was difficult. Luckily I had a few days off after my last night shift, so I had time to adjust my sleep schedule back to normal. When working night shifts, make sure you don't have any caffeine past 3 am or you will have trouble falling asleep when you get home. I also recommend not eating anything too heavy during your night shift since your body is used to sleeping at that time. I ate dinner at around 8 pm before I left my house and then ate snacks during my shift.

5. Helpful EM podcast! // The EM Basic podcast is really good and goes through different EM topics and chief complaints. It is especially great to listen to if you have a long commute or while cleaning your apartment.

I hope you found these tips helpful!

-C