Critical Care Medicine - Rochester

Description:

The Critical Care Service (CCS) includes a core of physicians who care for critically ill patients in the medical and surgical intensive care units. The CCS consists of a staff consultant, senior residents or fellows, and junior residents. The group is assisted by critical care nurses, dietitians, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and pharmacists. Daily activities include morning and afternoon rounds, didactic lectures and tutorials, and bedside clinical teaching. The staff consultants come from the disciplines of anesthesiology and pulmonary medicine.

Specific Goals:

1. Learn about the diagnosis and management of acute organ failure, with particular emphasis on the cardiorespiratory system.
2. Gain experience dealing with a wide variety of acute emergencies and all aspects of respiratory care, including mechanical ventilation.
3. Become familiar with interpreting hemodynamic data, caring for postoperative surgical patients and managing critically ill medical patients.

Activity Outline:

While on the Critical Care Service, students are expected to take part in all activities of the service, including patient admission and workup, on-call duties as outlined in the Guidelines for Medical Student Clerks Assigned to Internal Medicine Hospital Services, presentation of tutorials, and attendance at formal conferences.

Method of Evaluation:

At the end of the elective, the consultants and senior residents who work: with students complete individual performance evaluations. This information is given to the program coordinator who writes letters summarizing student performance. The program coordinator discusses these evaluations with the students.