Curriculum
The educational curriculum in emergency medicine begins at the PGY-2 level and consists of over 650 hours of lectures and demonstrations, as well as bedside teaching, patient encounters, and pre-hospital care field experience. The didactic material is presented during two three-hour conferences each week given by the Department of Emergency Medicine. Residents also receive teaching through specialty conferences given during off service rotations and electives. During emergency medicine conference time, all patient care responsibilities are assumed by attending staff so all residents are at liberty to attend conference. Presentations include emergency medicine grand rounds, mortality and morbidity conference, combined surgery/emergency medicine trauma conference, pre-hospital care conference, radiology conference, study guide review, journal club, ACLS, ATLS, and the Base Station Physician Course. All residents in emergency medicine are given graded responsibility for teaching and supervising junior residents, clinical clerks and paramedic trainees within the Emergency Medicine Department.
While in the Emergency Medicine Department, residents spend a minimum of 60 hours per week toward residency activities. Of this, approximately 42 hours per week, divided into eight-hour shifts, will be spent in the patient care area. The remainder of the 60 hours is devoted to research activities and purely educational activities (conference attendance, personal reading).
The Kern Medical Center Emergency Medicine Program has 13 four-week rotations during the year. All rotations are within KMC for inpatient and outpatient services except for the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) rotation, which is conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.