Modeling after other "Expectations of a clerkship director" publications from other undergraduate medical education organizations in the fields of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Psychiatry and many others, this article sets forth a set of expectations and guidelines for the EM clerkship director.
Clerkship directors play a huge role in representing the department within the School of Medicine. They are often the "face" of the department. Oddly, however, clerkship directors in EM are usually the most junior faculty in the department, in contrast to Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, and Ob/Gyn where the clerkship director is typically a senior faculty member. Furthermore, clerkship directors in EM get far less protected time than residency directors (their GME counterpart), who work an average of 17 clinical hours per week. Even comparing to clerkship directors in other specialties, EM clerkship directors receive less protected time.
Because EM clerkships come in many shapes and sizes (mandatory, selective, and/or elective EM rotations), negotiating protected time will vary from site to site. Each type of rotation has its unique challenges and requires different amounts of time commitment on the part of the clerkship director. We outline the roles, responsibilities, and essential skills of an EM clerkship director.
A table lists helpful resources for the EM clerkship director. This list is actually useful for anyone interested in EM medical education.
Full disclosure: I'm a proud co-author on this paper. Just another example of getting to be a part of great projects if you work with great people.
Reference
Rogers RL, Wald DA, Lin M, Zun LS, Christopher T, Manthey DE. Expectations of an Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director. Acad Emerg Med. 2011 - in press PMID: 21521403
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