Department of
Emergency Medicine

Medical Student Clerkship—Fourth Year

West Virginia University Department of Emergency Medicine is proud to offer a clerkship for fourth year medical students. We welcome fourth year students from WVU SOM as well as visiting fourth students from all LCME accredited medical students. In this four-week rotation, we offer diverse clinical experiences, innovative didactics, numerous simulation experiences, and a broad sampling of all our department has to offer. Students interested in a career in Emergency Medicine will also receive hands-on guidance to the application and match process from our educational faculty.

Clinical Experience

Comprising the majority of the four-week rotation, the clinical experience aims to educate and provide experience for medical students on the practice of Emergency Medicine. Our faculty are dedicated to student education on-shift and work to use all patient encounters as educational opportunities. Through our rotation, students will see a diverse patient population and will be expected to assume supervised responsibility for diagnosing and treating a wide spectrum of pathology as they develop the skills required to enter residency and career in Emergency Medicine.

Clinical Experience Features:

  • A flexible schedule of 14-16 full ED shifts in synchrony with both teaching faculty and senior residents
  • Multiple teaching shifts throughout the week, during which an independent staff member is dedicated to students and residents with a focus on teaching clinical skills
  • Opportunity for 1-3 shifts take place at our community site, United Hospital Center, where students often learn one-on-one with teaching faculty in a busy community system
  • Opportunity for voluntary shifts/experiences at any number of community and rural sites learners may be interested in

Curriculum

The rotations also features a dynamic curriculum for student learning that strives to be as flexible as it is innovative.

Curriculum Features:

  • Dedicated classroom sessions far beyond traditional lectures: Fundamentals of Emergency Medicine, Case Series, Morbidity and Mortality, and others
  • Multiple experiences in simulation, in which students will take on the role of the primary provider treating a simulated patient in a safe structured environment with real-time feedback in our state-of-the-art Simulation Center.
  • Procedural workshops in wound repair, airway management, splinting, and more
  • Dedicated student ultrasound workshop through our nationally recognized ultrasound department
  • Additional to the typical curriculum, July rotators can participate in our Topic Oriented Lecture Series for our arriving residents, giving fourth year students the opportunity to undergo the same “crash course” as our beginning physicians, providing an unparalleled head start in Emergency Medicine

Student Advising

Starting students down the path towards a career in Emergency Medicine is the goal of our Clerkship. As such, we offer numerous dedicated sessions for career advising as well as a focus fostering student access to lasting friends, mentors, and advisors.

Advising Features:

  • Dedicated Q&A session with our Program Director and Associate Program Director
  • Multiple dedicated meetings with Clerkship Director for feedback and learner progress as well as advice regarding applications and match process
  • Resident mentors will be available every day and in every facet of our student experience
  • Long-term contact with program leadership regarding application progress, continuing well after the rotation

Applying

The strength of our program is in its people, and we are eager to share, not just our passion for Emergency Medicine, but our departmental family with any interested students. Please feel free to contact our Clerkship Coordinator, Ms. Haley Brewer, at haley.brewer@wvumedicine.org and our Clerkship Director, Dr. Anthony Steratore, at afsteratore@hsc.wvu.edu with any questions regarding our clinical rotation.

Applications for an MS4 away rotation in Emergency Medicine are accepted through the Visiting Student Application Service, also known as VSAS. VSAS can be accessed by visiting: http://www.aamc.org/vsas. All information regarding fourth year visiting clerkships is handled by the Office of Student Services at WVU. If you have questions regarding your application or the application process, please contact Ms. Christina Politte at polittec@hsc.wvu.edu.