Abstract
BackgroundUniversity students have limited opportunities to gain healthcare clinical exposure within an academic curriculum. Furthermore, traditional pre-medical clinical experiences like shadowing lack active learning components. This may make it difficult for students to make an informed decision about pursuing biomedical professions. An academic university level research course with bedside experience provides students direct clinical participation in the healthcare setting.MethodsDescribed is a research immersion course for senior university students (3rd to 5th year) interested in healthcare and reported study enrollment with final course evaluations. The setting was an adult, academic, urban, level 1 trauma center emergency department (ED) within a tertiary-care, 1000-bed, medical center. Our course, “Immersion in Emergency Care Research”, was offered as a university senior level class delivered consecutively over 16-weeks for students interested in healthcare careers. Faculty and staff from the Department of Emergency Medicine provided a classroom lecture program and extensive bedside, hands-on clinical research experience. Students enrolled patients in a survey study requiring informed consent, interviews, data abstraction and data entry. Additionally, they were required to write and present a mock emergency care research proposal inspired by their clinical experience. The course evaluations from students’ ordinal rankings and blinded text responses report possible career impact.ResultsThirty-two students, completed the 16-week, 6–9 h per week, course from August to December in 1 of 4 years (2016 to 2019). Collectively, students enrolled 759 ED patients in the 4 survey studies and reported increased confidence in the clinical research process as each week progressed. Ranked evaluations were extremely positive, with many students describing how the course significantly impacted their career pathways and addressed an unmet need in biomedical education. Six students continued the research experience from the course through independent study using the survey data to develop 3 manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals.ConclusionsA bedside emergency care research course for students with pre-healthcare career aspirations can successfully provide early exposure to patients and emergency care, allow direct experience with clinical bedside research, research data collection, and may impact biomedical science career choices.
Highlights
Introduction to US EmergencyCare; COBRA, EMTALA, and Caring for the UnderinsuredPast Student Reflections; Student Emergency Care Research ProjectEmergency Operations Study Group Fluid Resuscitation in Adults: Research Design, Methodology, and ResultsGeriatric Emergency Care Research: Performing Clinical Research in the ElderlyClinical Research Proposal: Questions, Aims, and HypothesesClinical Research Proposal WorkshopEmergency Care Operations Research, Center OverviewClinical Trauma ResearchClinical Toxicology ResearchWho, What, When, Where of Air TransportResearch Evaluating Patients for Cardiovascular Emergencies
We describe curriculum development and conduct of a course addressing the fundamentals of clinical care and providing senior-level university students interested in a healthcare career with an active, career-informing clinical research experience
The students felt that the curriculum and course activities were aligned with the course objectives (5.00/5.00 vs 4.40/ 5.00) and helped foster a greater appreciation for clinical medicine and research (5.00/5.00 vs 4.29/5.00)
Summary
Introduction to US EmergencyCare; COBRA, EMTALA, and Caring for the UnderinsuredPast Student Reflections; Student Emergency Care Research ProjectEmergency Operations Study Group Fluid Resuscitation in Adults: Research Design, Methodology, and ResultsGeriatric Emergency Care Research: Performing Clinical Research in the ElderlyClinical Research Proposal: Questions, Aims, and HypothesesClinical Research Proposal Workshop (students present)Emergency Care Operations Research, Center OverviewClinical Trauma ResearchClinical Toxicology ResearchWho, What, When, Where of Air TransportResearch Evaluating Patients for Cardiovascular Emergencies. Traditional pre-medical clinical experiences like shadowing lack active learning components. This may make it difficult for students to make an informed decision about pursuing biomedical professions. Pre-health undergraduate and graduate students often make important career choices early and seek out clinical experiences to make more informed decisions Such exposure allows students to gain experience interacting with patients, conduct research, and understand the nuances of their healthcare career of choice. While these programs provide value, having an active role in patient interactions and clinical research has the potential to provide students with greater appreciation for different healthcare roles and their impact on patient experiences. The dearth of immersive exposure has been recognized by undergraduate institutions nationwide, and by medical schools, who have begun to develop new curricula to provide clinical experiences to medical students as early as the first year [2]
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