Trauma Surgery Rotation in EM Residency

[vtucci]

Hello all.

In looking to set up my away rotations fourth year (and hopefully narrow the list of programs that I plan to apply to for the match), I was wondering if some residents could speak on how the trauma surgery portion of their curriculum works at their EM residency.

I have seen that there is a good deal of variation with respect to how this works.

NOTE: ***Let me preface this by saying that I am not like the tons of medical students obsessed with trauma and judging EM programs by that yardstick. I would prefer to have my trauma surg experience be participating in/helping to run traumas in the ED and managing patients in the trauma ICU or on floors rather than being in the OR for hours on end.***

Thanks all.

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[deleted109597]

Most actually use you to run the ICU/floor so that the surgeons can operate. At least, that's what I've come across.

 

[lucky_deadman]

Most actually use you to run the ICU/floor so that the surgeons can operate. At least, that's what I've come across.

Once again he beats me to the punch with exactly what I was going to say.

 

[roja]

I don't known about most EM places, but I did see students at Ryder in Miami. They seemed to get a great experience. They helped run the traumas, scrubbed in some, managed patients in the SICU/TICU and also helped with consults. I taught several of my students central lines and chest tubes because I was tired of doing them myself.

 

[WallowaWanderer]

The trauma rotation at most places is pretty chill. All you have to do is carry the pagers, respond to all the floor calls, take care of the ICU patients, respond to the traumas, do the admits and coordinate PT/OT/social services. How hard could that be?



In all seriousness, you will have no trouble staying out of the OR on your Tsurg rotation in residency, whether you want to or not.

 

[vtucci]

The highlight of my surgery rotation as a third year has been working with one of the interns in the SICU putting in central lines so I really enjoy this aspect of surgery and managing truly sick individuals.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[roja]

Don't discount being in the OR, at least not for traumas and acute surgical issues. It can actually be a phenomenal experience to correlate what you have been seeing in the ED with what you see in the OR. You can't really appreciate this as much as an MS3 because you are trying to drink from a fire hydrant, but a good MS4 rotation after you have seen some surgical emergencies in the ED, can really give you a good perspective.

(I remember doing a fast, not finding the splenornal- pos fast by the way- and then going to the OR and seeing a completelly ruptured spleen. Made that 'finding' on the FAST exam much more useful. Just one example.....)

 

[zinjanthropus]

Hello all.

In looking to set up my away rotations fourth year (and hopefully narrow the list of programs that I plan to apply to for the match), I was wondering if some residents could speak on how the trauma surgery portion of their curriculum works at their EM residency.

I have seen that there is a good deal of variation with respect to how this works.

NOTE: ***Let me preface this by saying that I am not like the tons of medical students obsessed with trauma and judging EM programs by that yardstick. I would prefer to have my trauma surg experience be participating in/helping to run traumas in the ED and managing patients in the trauma ICU or on floors rather than being in the OR for hours on end.***

Thanks all.

wait, are you doing your away rotations in EM or trauma surgery? I don't really see why you would want to do externships on the trauma service if you are doing EM. On the other hand, if you are doing EM rotations you won't be doing anything with the trauma team so it's not an issue. Also, I doubt there are any (?) programs where you regularly spend time in the OR while on the trauma service as EM resident.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

i just finished my trauma rotation. here's how it works at my place. the trauma team is all EM residents. 2 EM interns, a second year EM resident acts as the chief. we do have one gen surg resident on our crew, who sees any gen surg patients we pick up (about 1/3 of the time we cover both trauma and gen surg consults in the hospital), as well as being on call to go to the OR 24/7.

the EM residents rotating through the trauma service handle every aspect of the trauma resuscitations (on of the EM residents in the ED handles airway). we also carry the floor pager and handle every issue with our patients...which means it becomes a pseudo-ICU rotation too. I loved the resuscitations, but honestly I feel the best learning I did was in the middle of the night in the neuro ICU or SICU when I would have multiple patients fixin to die. The attendings were obviously trauma surgeons, but they were very hands off. They were happy to help you if you needed something on the floor, but otherwise they'd peek their head in a trauma and then we'd discuss plan, and then they'd disappear.

Bottom line, the rotation was a crap load of work...but it was awesome!

 

[vtucci]

I am doing my away electives in emergency medicine.

I was trying to get a better feel for what the required trauma surgery rotations are like in various EM residency programs as there seems to be a good deal of variety.

zinjanthropus-- There are some programs where EM residents spend time in the OR assisting on trauma surgeries and other places where they are used primarily to manage floor or ICU patients.

Roja- thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind when I am doing my two-week trauma surg elective during my 3rd year surg clerkship. Thinking good thoughts. It seems like depending on location and/or program, trauma surgery can be general surgery with the rare acute surgery sprinkled in for good measure.