Curriculum
All women providers on shift-more often than you'd think
Practice what you do
We’ve designed our residency curriculum with your needs in mind! All your educational experiences are carefully timed and planned so you have a well-rounded experience at Baystate. We know there is more to life than working shifts. With our schedule, you'll have time for individual scholarly pursuits, maintain a family and social life as well as community involvement.
Highlights of your time in the Emergency Department include:
Clinical assignments average less than 45 hours per week.
Our shifts are nine hours. Work hard, then enjoy the rest of your day!
Night shifts are scheduled in short blocks of four to five shifts in a row at most.
PGY1 Curriculum
We value the transition from medical school to residency. Your entire first month with us focuses on orientation to the department, our personnel, procedures and adjusting to life as a resident. After that comes a yearlong rotation through the majority of your off-service rotations to give as well as time in the Emergency Department.
PGY1 residents in the Emergency Department have 20 shifts per block.
Emergency Medicine Orientation - 4 weeks
Emergency Medicine/Pediatric Emergency Medicine - 19 weeks
Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) - 4 weeks
Cardiology Critical Care Unit (CCU) - 4 weeks
Anesthesiology - 3 weeks (split in 2 week blocks and paired with 2 weeks of EM)
Inpatient Pediatrics - 2 weeks
Obstetrics & Gynecology - 2 weeks
Ultrasound - 4 weeks
Trauma - 4 weeks
EMS - 2 weeks (paired with 1 week of ED shifts)
Vacation 4 weeks
PGY2 Curriculum
Your second year of residency includes specialty training in pediatric intensive care and surgical intensive care. You’ll have an elective to tailor your education to your needs. During this year, your pediatric shifts are scattered throughout each EM month so you can see the seasonality of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.
You’ll gain progressive responsibilities in the Emergency Department as your skills develop and improve. Upper-level EM residents manage all airways (including trauma), direct major resuscitations, and perform invasive procedures.
PGY2 residents in the ED have 19 shifts per block.
Emergency Medicine/Pediatric Emergency Medicine - 36 weeks
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) - 4 weeks
Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) - 4 weeks
Elective - 4 weeks
Vacation - 4 weeks
PGY3 Curriculum
You’ll spend the majority of your third year in the Emergency Department. The third year includes a one-month local community EM rotation and one month of elective, with available international experiences.
On an alternating basis, senior residents are designated as the trauma leader, meaning they direct the initial trauma resuscitation. When they are not the trauma leader, they are still heavily involved in the secondary survey and procedures in the trauma bay! As a senior resident, you’ll be increasingly exposed to the administrative aspects of the department, continue to direct medical resuscitations, and further develop leadership skills.
In the ED, PGY3 residents have 18 shifts per block.
Emergency Medicine/Pediatric Emergency Medicine - 40 weeks
Community Emergency Medicine - 4 weeks (split in 2 week blocks)
Elective - 4 weeks
Vacation - 4 weeks
Simulation
We do several types of simulation throughout the year!
Simulation in our accredited Simulation Center - residents from all three years work together as a team through a case. Afterwards, teams do a group debrief to discuss pertinent learning points, aspects that went well and where there might be room for improvement. Often, there is a skills lab paired with the simulation where residents could practice skills like placing transcutaneous pacemakers, umbilical IVs and more!
In Situ Simulation - these simulation cases take place in our Emergency Department. They are multidisciplinary including nursing and pharmacy staff working with residents. These are year-specific cases, meaning interns do the case with other interns, second years with other second years, etc.
Procedure Simulation - residents practice important skills like central line access, normal and difficult deliveries, lumbar punctures, chest tubes, intubation, front of neck airways and more!
Continuing Quality Improvement and Scholarly Projects
All residents are involved in a Continuing Quality Improvement project. These projects aim to improve a certain process in the department or hospital wide.
All residents also complete a scholarly project during residency. Past residents have completed research projects, helped write book chapters and more! While you are encouraged to be involved in research, it is not mandatory.
Weekly Resident Conference
Our Resident Conference is scheduled from 10am - 2:30 pm. The day is protected from shifts in the ED so that residents can attend conference. Our Advanced Practitioner Providers and ED Faculty staff the department during this time. Conference consists of lectures, small group work, journal club, procedural skills and more. Most lectures are 20 or 40 minutes and are predominantly delivered by EM faculty and residents. Below are a few highlights!
Stats Are Fun - a longitudinal curriculum to help apply statistical concepts in clinical practice
EKG in 20 - concise, high impact review of foundational and advanced topics in EKG interpretation
Journal Club - critical appraisal of the cutting edge literature with expert research faculty
Social EM Curriculum - didactic series addressing population health, disparities and health policy as they impact the Emergency Medicine
Follow Up Case Presentations - residents present patients they followed after the ED to share key learning opportunities
Small Group Sessions - this can vary from group discussions on complex or controversial topics to procedural skills workshops and occur approximately twice per month
Quality Improvement Case Review (aka: M&M) - systems focussed review of opportunities to improve care
Resiliency Conference
Resiliency Conference has replaced our traditional "after hours" Journal Club. Journal Club still happens, but during our Small Group Discussions. Now, we meet once a month to discuss the topics key to staying well as an Emergency Physician: burnout and depression, difficult conversations, challenging consultants, financial literacy, and much more. Each month an attending is gracious enough to invite us into their home for dinner and discussions.