Department of
Emergency Medicine

Program Overview and Curriculum

The Medical Education and Administration fellowship consists of four areas of focus (tracks). Although fellows will pick an area of specialization that will allow in-depth exploration and experiences in a specific area of medical education, they will have longitudinal exposure to all four tracks during their training. In addition to the tracks outlined below, fellows will have exposure to the principles of educational learning theories and educational scholarship.

Much of what happens in medical education and program administration occurs on somewhat of a cyclical basis throughout the academic year, and as such, the curriculum of the fellowship is longitudinal in nature with fellows participating in applicable activities from each track during each month of the academic year.

Fellows have the opportunity to pursue an advanced degree during fellowship and may select from a Master’s Degree in Education, Business Administration, or Healthcare Administration. Fellows selecting an advanced degree pathway should complete it at West Virginia University if that degree is offered by the institution. A Master’s in Medical Education is not offered at WVU, but funding for outside institutions will be discussed and allocated on a case by case basis by the fellowship.  Fellows electing to pursue an advanced degree will complete 2 years of fellowship training to allow time for completion of both the fellowship curriculum and the advanced degree.   Fellows will be provided with support to attend the ACEP Teaching Fellowship and the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine Academic Assembly each year.  If a fellow is from a field outside of emergency medicine, support will be provided to attend equivalent national/international conferences in their respective specialty.

Tracks

Graduate Medical Education
Fellows will learn the day to day workings of running a residency program in emergency medicine with a specific focus upon:

  • Delivering high quality didactic presentations that engage a wide variety of learners
  • Providing effective supervision and supportive, high quality bedside teaching for residents
  • Designing longitudinal rotation and didactic curricula that prepare learners both to care for any undifferentiated patient in any setting and position them to pass their boards
  • Crafting and delivering impactful, meaningful written and verbal feedback for learners
  • Experience participating with the various residency committees (Program Evaluation Committee, Scholarship Oversight Committee, Clinical Competency Committee)
  • Evaluating residency applications holistically and working with the residency leadership team construct a rank list
  • Identify struggling learners and crafting evidence based, supportive remediation plans to help ensure their success.
  • Participate in the annual submission of accreditation data to the ACGME to prepare the fellow to submit these reports independently in their future roles.

Undergraduate Medical Education

Fellows will be embedded in our fourth-year medical student elective during the high-volume months (July-October) and will participate in high-yield UME experiences across the SOM throughout the academic year.   Specific areas of focus will include:

  • Delivering high quality bedside and didactic experiences for medical student learners.
  • Incorporating various sources of assessment and evaluation data to help construct meaningful feedback to help improve performance for novice learners
  • Participate as an observer in major committees at the School of Medicine, including, but not limited to Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Academic and Professional Standards
  • Participating as a member of the SLOE authorship committee while also learning to craft high-quality narrative letters of recommendation for non-EM bound applicants.


Simulation

Learning to teach via simulation is an important part of modern medical education and involves much more than teaching with a high-fidelity simulation manikin.  As part of this track, fellows will gain experience in:

  • Utilizing effectively crafted learning objectives to create high yield, realistic simulation scenarios.
  • Selecting the right simulation modality for the educational content being taught
  • Learning to operate and troubleshoot high fidelity manikins, their related software programs, as well as task training manikins
  • Constructing simulation scenarios that effectively deliver core content will providing a high degree of functional realism that allow the learners to immerse themselves in the situation and entirely suspend disbelief
  • Providing effective debriefing sessions that deliver core content knowledge to learners and help reveal gaps in performance while providing a psychologically safe debriefing environment that allows learners to reflect upon and grow from their simulation experiences.

Administration

Regardless of the path you choose in medical education or academic medicine, it is essential to learn how the business and operational aspects of the department and institution influence programs, educational offerings, and the care provided by the faculty.  We believe inclusion of this track as part of our standard curriculum sets our fellowship apart from the rest and provides valuable leadership experiences for our fellows.   As part of this track, fellows will gain experience in:

  • Understanding how departmental budgets are constructed with a focus upon how staffing and calculation of full-time equivalent (FTE) occurs
  • Applying principles of quality improvement methodology to both improve care for patients and be able to implement educational endeavors in these areas in the future.
  • Learn what medical directors do, how they interface with educational leadership, and what the C-suite expects from physicians.
  • Participate as an observer in the WVU Medicine Quality Executive Council under the supervision of the WVU EM medical directors.