Our formal didactic series, Grand Rounds, occurs on Tuesday mornings, and we have five hours of protected lecture time from 7:00 AM to noon. The Emergency Department attending staff and all off-service rotation attendings realize that our residents will be at Rounds every Tuesday morning. Grand Rounds usually consists of lectures and presentations from residents, faculty, staff, and guest lecturers. A mix of case presentations, lectures, x-ray and ECG readings, medicolegal review, and typically lively interactive discussions keep the mornings from becoming boring.

Twice a month we also have "Breakout Sessions" in addition to and following Rounds. These are small group sessions ranging from case presentations to question-and-answer sessions to demonstration labs. One attending is usually present with eight to ten residents, and a great deal of practical knowledge is usually passed on.

Trauma Lab is another asset. On alternating Tuesdays, two to four residents are assigned to Trauma Lab with one or two faculty members in attendance. Each pair of residents is directly supervised by an attending while performing procedures such as venous cutdowns, intraosseous access, diagnostic peritoneal lavage, transvenous pacing, chest tube placement, emergent thoracotomy, cardiorrhaphy, cricothyroidotomy, retrograde intubations, and more.  This is a great opportunity to hone your clinical skills.

Oral board simulations provide good practice for the third-year residents and also an opportunity for first- and second-year residents to observe a mock exam case. Once a month, an attending will present a simulated oral board exam case to a third-year resident during Grand Rounds... nerve-wracking, but also incredibly helpful.

Written exams are administered periodically, based on assigned readings in Tintinalli and Rosen. Answers are provided for discussion and future reference. This provides a great preparation for the annual Inservice exam as well as for the Emergency Medicine written boards.

Journal Club is held monthly, usually over breakfast or dinner. Each month an assigned resident selects several articles, and another resident presents each article assigned to facilitate discussion and critical evaluation. Two to three times a year, articles are selected focusing primarily on Pediatrics. Journal Club is an informal way to remain current in the literature and to learn to critically evaluate published studies.