How to Teach in the Emergency Department

Abstract

Teach effectively in the Emergency Department (ED) by leveraging the challenges of the ED environment to create spaces and opportunities for learning. Use a framework to start your teaching—this helps learners approach patients in a systematic way to create learning opportunities on every case. Employ a strategy of “planned spontaneity” that allows for interruption. Effective teachers use the unpredictable, undifferentiated patient to help learners become more comfortable with uncertainty and the management of the sick, undifferentiated patient. Finally, take advantage of the communication skills required to practice emergency medicine well, and use them to teach important interpersonal and communication skills.