Rush Oak Park Orientation frequently-asked-questions.
- What should I know about the Rush Oak Park ER?
- What are the important dates of the rotation?
- Where do we meet on the first day?
- Is there anything I need to do before the first day?
- What are the names and numbers I need to know?
- What can I put my stuff while working?
- What is EPIC ASAP and how do I get access?
- When are the lectures?
- What do we do with the review questions?
The Rush Oak Park Emergency Department
The mission of the Rush Oak Park Emergency Department is to provide patient and family centered comfort and care in a trusting environment focused on an excellent clinical outcome for every patient. The ROPH Emergency Department handles approximately 40,000 emergencies each year including 5,000 pediatric emergencies. The state-of-the-art ED features 22 private treatment rooms, two behavioral health rooms, and a decontamination room.
Patients will be guided through the many transitions of the clinical spectrum of care while prioritizing safety and quality of clinical outcomes.
As students, you can play a big part in this. Remember that a visit to the Emergency Department is a difficult experience. As physicians, our job is to provide compassion. Take that extra moment to ask yourself, “what would I want need if I was this patient?” and then try to provide it for them.
Rotation Calendar
This table provides the usual dates for these activities. Please note these may change based off of Holidays or sim-lab availability, and the final dates will be sent to you by Karmen Howard several weeks before the start of the rotation. Please note that all sessions are mandatory unless otherwise indicated.
| Date/Time | Session/Location | Resources | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Mon 8:00 PM | Rotation Orientation Armour Academic Center – Room location details to be emailed prior to start of rotation. | How to Approach the ER Patient Critical Thinking in the ED | Participation |
| 1st Mon 1:00 PM | Airway Lab – Rush Simulation Lab | CDEM Airway Module Airway Procedures | Sim Lab Participation Checklist |
| 1st Mon 1:00 PM | Resuscitation Lab – Rush Simulation Lab | Pulseless arrest | Sim Lab Participation Checklist |
| 1st Tue 7:00 AM | Site Orientation – ROPH ED – Meet at back employee entrance across street from parking | Map | Participation |
| 3rd Mon 8:00 AM | Suture Lab – Rush Simulation Lab | CDEM Wound Closure Module | Sim Lab Participation Checklist |
| 3rd Mon 8:00 AM | Trauma Simulation Lab – Rush Simulation Lab | Trauma Module | Sim Lab Participation |
| 3rd Mon 11:00 AM | EBM Session Sim Lab – Please note this session will begin immediately following completion of the Trauma Sim Lab | EBM Article Presentation/Group Discussion | Participation |
| 4th Mon 10:00 AM | NBME Clinical Mastery Review Session – Zoom | Optional Participation | |
| 4th Fri 8:30 AM | NBME Exam – TOB | Final Exam |
Where do we meet on the first day?
For both the Rush and Rush Oak Park sites, we will meet in the in a room specified on your welcome email in the Armour Academic Center. This is a mandatory session.
On the first day, we will:
- Review the course objectives and discuss structure of the rotation.
- Review how to approach the ER patient.
- Make your schedule among your classmates (following guidelines listed below).
Following this you’ll get a one hour for lunch and reconvene in the Rush Sim Lab (Jelke Building) at 1PM for sim and didactics.
There will be a site-specific orientation with Dr. Hunsucker in the ROPH ED in the morning of Tuesday during the first week for a tour and to talk about elements specific to the site.
Do I need to do anything before the first day?
- Read this FAQ section.
- Read the syllabus, the course objectives, watch the videos on Clinical Thinking in EM and presenting in the ER.
- Complete document “ROPH professional student registration” included in welcome emails.
- Register and complete EPIC/ASAP (computerized documentation) training
What are the names and numbers I need to know?
- Clerkship Director: Thomas Alcorn, MD: Thomas_R_Alcorn@rush.edu
- Site Director: Ray Hunsucker, DO: Raymond_L_Hunsucker@rush.edu
- Clerkship Coordinator: Karmen Howard
- Phone: (312) 942-8802
- Email: Karmen_D_Howard@rush.edu
- ROPH ED: 708-660-6000
Where can I put my stuff while I’m working a shift?
The workstations in the emergency department aren’t a secure place to store personal belongings, so only bring with you things that that you need for your shift. You do not need to bring a computer to your shifts, there will be computers in the department that you can use. Do not leave unattended belongings in the emergency department, including electronic devices, as we cannot guarantee their safety.
Lockers will be available for you to store your belongings, and further details will provided on your site specific orientation during the first week of the clerkship. Lockers do not have built in locks, you must bring your own lock to secure your items.
What is EPIC ASAP
EPIC is the Rush System’s electronic documentation system. It is meant to house all the information in the medical center electronically.
ASAP is the Emergency Department’s portion of this program. Many of the pieces will be similar to pieces you may have used on the floor, however there are many sections which are different. Therefore the training is mandatory for all students doing the rotation.
You will be assigned a learning program, Epic – Emergency Provider, in Rush Learning Hub for the Rush Medical Students.
URL: learninghub.rush.edu
ID: user applies own Rush network ID
PW: user applies own Rush network PW
The gist of writing your notes boils down to this:
- Open patient’s chart
- Go to Notes
- Add New note
- In the top of the note window type: ED Note
- Service: Emergency
- Insert smart text: this has a list of note templates, there is one that is called Emergency Med H&P- Med Student or something like that.
There is a learning curve to use the system, but most students have picked it up fairly quickly. However, here are a few pointers I’ve picked up from past students:
- If your patient is stable (and if your attending is busy), write up the chart while you are waiting. This will be a time intensive task the first few times.
- Being unlicensed not-yet-physicians, you can not sign your own orders. You should still enter them and “pend” them. This means they are pending attending approval before they will be followed-through. After presenting your patient to the attending, together review your pended orders. The both of you can use this time to analyze your thought process.
- Some attendings will prefer to put the orders in themselves instead of accepting your pended orders. Please do not take this as a judgement on your thought process. Accepting pended orders is a minor nuisance but has proven frustrating for some. If this is the case, use the time to discuss with the attending what you would like to order and why. The attending can put the orders in the computer, but you should provide the clinical reasoning and thought process.
- Don’t worry about reminding your attending to cosign your notes. The computer will remind them to do that.
When are lectures?
For the Rush and Rush Oak Park sites, we’ll do didactics together and follow the same schedule. Most of our educational sessions are simulation based and will take place in the Rush Simulation Lab on the first floor of the Jelke building on the main Rush University Campus.
There won’t be any formal traditional lectures purely for the medical students, but this doesn’t mean there aren’t didactics. We have several online videos to prepare you for our class time. This page has our didactic schedule. Some of the material will come from a national curriculum for fourth-year students taking Emergency Medicine. This was created, written and edited by clerkship directors in Emergency Medicine (CDEM) from across the country.
The online lecture videos allow us to move the lectures to home, making room in class time to spend on simulation. In the sim lab, you’ll be able to use the information you learned reading CDEMcurriculum.org and watching the videos.
Resident lectures are held every Thursday from 7am to 12pm (and occasionally 8am-1pm). These are not required, but you are welcome to attend if you would like more education or if you’re interested in seeing more about how the residency functions and connecting with our residency team. The schedule and topics will be discussed during orientation.
What should we do before the review session?
Take the NBME Emergency Medicine Self-Assessment Test: Form 1. You will be provided voucher codes for this.
For the review session, the point of the session is three-fold:
- To learn how to approach ED-specific questions on multiple-choice tests.
- To give yourself a sense of how prepared you are for the exam on Friday. And
- to cover some high-yield facts and information for the exam.
Please make sure that take the NBME test before the session. The session is optional but strongly encouraged.