The Department of Emergency Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine offers an elective in emergency medicine split between The Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan and Elmhurst City Hospital in Queens. The four week elective provides students with a balanced Emergency Medicine experience. The Clerkship Director for Mount Sinai students is Dr. Barbara Richardson at (212) 659-1651, and for visiting students is Tim Walther, MD, who can be reached at SinaiEM.elective@gmail.com. Visiting students can download an application here.

Eligibility
Emergency Medicine is a fourth-year elective. Third-year students are considered on an individual basis if they have completed medicine, surgery, and OB-GYN. Certain eligibility restrictions apply.

The Sites
Mount Sinai is a tertiary care medical center. The Emergency Department sees approximately 85,000 patients a year. A fascinating variety of patients are treated including a large number of medical resuscitations. The Department is divided into critical, acute, subacute, and fast track areas; there is a separate pediatric emergency department as well as a separate psychiatric emergency department. Students will spend two shifts in the PEDS ER under the supervision of PEM faculty.

Elmhurst is a city hospital and a level one Trauma Center. The adult emergency department sees approximately 80,000 patients a year with an equal distribution of medical and surgical problems. The Department is divided into a critical medical resuscitation area, trauma resuscitation, acute, subacute, and fast track areas; there is a separate pediatric emergency department.

Both sites have busy, high volume emergency departments that offer excellent training in emergency medicine. They are staffed by emergency medicine trained faculty and emergency medicine residents. Students work with a specific faculty member during each shift who provides specific feedback.

Schedules
The rotation is structured so that students work 14 shifts, which are split between the various areas of each Department. Schedules are arranged so that there is never more than one student at any time in an area. In general, shifts are from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. at both sites. There is some flexibility in these schedules.

Didactics
Four case-based teaching sessions cover airway, AMS poisoning, trauma, ethics and EBM and an overview. Two labs cover suture and splinting and basic resuscitation.

Suture Lab
In the first week of each rotation block, there is a four-hour wound management laboratory which includes lectures, suture and splinting workshops, and case scenario discussions.

Log Books and Follow-up
A log book is handed out on the first day and is maintained throughout the rotation. This includes procedures, patients managed, and faculty comments.

Reading Material
Students are expected to supplement their experience in the Emergency Department with these readings and literature relevant to specific cases managed. Students will gain access to the clerkship Web site which contains articles to read, all schedules, student teaching cases, and cyberschool.

Conference
Student conferences are Mondays and Tuesdays. Every Wednesday there is a five-hour conference for emergency medicine residents that medical students are welcome to attend. The Resident's Conference is at Elmhurst on the first and third Wednesday of each month, and at Sinai on the second and fourth Wednesday. The Conference always begins with 90 minutes of case presentations, followed by grand rounds, after which there are a variety of topic presentations. Check the Web site for speakers and start times.

Final Evaluation
During the third week of the rotation, a fifty question exercise is given followed by a discussion of each question. The object of the exercise (and the log books) is to provide a format to discuss the rotation.

Final evaluation is based on clinical performance, participation in conference, formal case presentations, follow-up rounds, log book, and final exam discussions. One case write up including referenced, self generated teaching points.