This rotation is meant to engage the student in such a way as to develop critical competencies in diagnosis, management and communication required to care for patients with urgent and emergent conditions in a complex and ever-changing medical system. This experience provides the opportunity to experience degrees of autonomy commensurate the students’ knowledge and skills as exhibited on a one-to-one basis. Each student is responsible to learn fundamental approaches to patients with undifferentiated urgent or emergent conditions. Emergency medicine students function as the primary caregiver for their patients, working closely with supervising board-certified emergency medicine faculty to develop and implement management plans.

Students are required to diagnose patients with a focused history and physical examination, taking into consideration not only the patient’s medical condition, but also the psychosocial aspects of the problem. Students implement solutions to these problems under direct supervision of expert clinical educators.