Our innovative curriculum builds upon our Department’s unique characteristics. As one of the most up-to-date emergency departments in Chicago, we feel the clinical experience is unmatched and residents will graduate with all of the essential clinical skills required of an emergency physician. However, we offer several additional program features that will provide our graduating residents with skills that go above and beyond the clinical expectations of an emergency physician.
Didactics
Weekly resident conferences are from 7a-12p on Thursdays and supplement the one-on-one bedside teaching. Conferences are high yield, interactive, and incorporate case-based and small group modalities as well as journal clubs and clinical pathologic case (CPC) presentations. We also integrate out hands on learning in our state of the art clinical simulation lab (twice monthly) and renowned ultrasound program (monthly). The curriculum repeats every 18 months, thereby exposing residents to all of the expected material at least twice prior to their graduation.
Didactics are theme-based, with lectures and labs grouped together to maximize continuity and comprehensive exposure to the material. Themes are assigned according to the weighted frequency by which topics are covered on the ABEM board certification exam, and the Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine. Joint lectures with other clinical departments at Rush, as well as other Chicago-based EM programs, facilitate interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration.
Individualized Independent Instruction is managed through online learning platforms to track progress, including EM Foundations, Rosh Review, HippoEM, and additional FOAMed instructional modules.
Quality Improvement
A major focus of the program is self and peer assessment. From the first month, residents are integrated into the department’s quality improvement process. By continual peer review of cases and performance evaluation, residents acquire additional skills that will prove invaluable as they enter an increasingly metric-driven clinical environment.
Advanced Trauma Training Program
Rush faculty provide a collaboration with the Department of Defense to train military paramedics in advanced trauma medicine. The program has already trained more than 2000 members of the military and residents will begin providing support to the program as teachers and participants in both procedure labs as well as mass casualty simulation exercises.
Fellowships
Existing fellowships in ultrasound and simulation are a testament to the teaching mission in our department. Fellows will have important roles as both clinical supervisors as well as core teaching faculty. The Rush fellowships are joint programs with the Cook County EM program and will facilitate collaborative learning between both programs.
Simulation
The Rush Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation is a state-of-the art, multidisciplinary training center that is immediately adjacent to our departmental offices. With a major expansion nearing completion, the simulation program is integrated into both weekly didactics as well as ongoing procedural training.
Mentorship
Our residents are paired with faculty mentors to ensure their personal growth and academic success. While on shift, residents are paired directly with an attending to facilitate feedback and on-shift learning. Residents also have individualized mentorship with residency leadership to assist with both career development and development of their scholarly work.
Guardian
Many of our 36 faculty are engaged in research aimed at improving patient care and emergency preparedness. Researchers at Rush developed GUARDIAN (Geographic Utilization of Artificial Intelligence in Real-Time for Disease Identification and Alert Notification), a real-time, automated, infectious agent detection and diagnosis system that is also programmed to improve hospital efficiency and patient throughput.
Yanina Purim Shem-Tov, Research Director
“The Rush ED offers broad clinical experiences from a very diverse faculty. We will foster an environment to develop clinically strong emergency physicians. “
