Prospective Applicants

Note: Application forms are available at the IHSE office at Georgetown Public Hospital.

Admission Requirements

1. Bachelor of Medicine or Bachelor of Surgery or its equivalent from a recognized medical school that is accepted by the Guyana Medical Council.

2. A satisfactorily completed 1 year formal internship at an institution accredited by the Guyana Medical council.

3. A minimum of one year post-internship clinical experience.

4. Medical school and internship transcripts and evaluations.

5. Two mandatory references from verifiable senior doctors. At least one must be from a supervising doctor at your current clinical assignment A third letter from any referee that the candidate feels is important to the completeness of their application is optional.

6. A 500 word or less typed personal essay explaining your interest and emergency medicine and how your participation in the Masters Programme in Emergency Medicine will help you achieve your career goals.

7. International applicants can be considered if they have clinical experience with letters of recommendation from Guyana or other Caribbean countries.

Curriculum

Emergency Medicine residents will cover the core curriculum through a variety of educational opportunities and learning modalities. The curriculum is based on the principle of graduated responsibility where each year the level of knowledge, expectations, responsibilities, and independence increases to achieve an independently practicing doctor and leader in the field of emergency medicine by graduation.

• • Clinical training: A major component of training will come from direct exposure to the management of patients in the A&E. Residents will have clinical supervision with bedside teaching by faculty during their shifts.

  • Didactic conference: The majority of formal didactic teaching will occur during the weekly conferences. Conference will consist of lectures covering the emergency medicine core curriculum, quizzes on required weekly reading, clinical case conferences and morbidity and mortality conferences.

  • Required textbooks:

    • Preparing for the Written Board Exam in Emergency Medicine; Carol S.Rivers MD, 6^th edition, 2011.

  • Off service conferences and lectures: Residents will be expected to participate in educational activities offered by off-service departments while on those rotations.

  • Independent Learning Modules: Each resident will be expected to cover reading material on selected emergency medicine topics on an individual basis throughout their three years of training. The learning modules will consist of selected reading from textbooks, articles and handbooks. Once the independent study is completed, the resident will take a written test covering the assigned material.

  • Emergency Medical Systems

  • Toxicology

  • Emergency Administration

  • Short courses and workshops: Existing courses as well as those organized by visiting emergency faculty will be required.

    • Selected short courses:

      • Basic Life Support

      • Advanced Cardiac Life Support

      • Pediatric Advanced Life Support

      • Trauma Team Training

      • Emergency airway/procedure workshops

      • Emergency bedside ultrasound workshops

      • Emergency Triage Course

      • Electrocardiogram interpretation

      • Emergency ophthalmology

Overall Rotations (Subject to confirmation. check back 1 feb):

Note: all rotations are mandatory including rotations at Vanderbilt, UWI and outstation.

• Vanderbilt: GPHC will cover the cost of flights and Vanderbilt will provide lodging and meal tickets

• UWI: GPHC will cover the cost of flights and UWI will provide a stipend to cover the costs of lodging

• Outstation: if lodging is needed, it will be provided by the host facility

  1. Emergency Medicine

  2. Critical Care

  3. Internal Medicine

  4. Surgery

  5. Obstetrics and Gynecology

  6. Orthopedics

  7. Anesthesia

  8. Pediatrics

  9. Regional hospital A&E

  10. Otolaryngology/ENT

  11. Ophthalmology

  12. Toxicology/ Emergency Medical Systems/ Administration

  13. Scholarly project

  14. Pediatric Emergency Medicine at UWI Mount Hope (T&T)

  15. Observational rotation at Vanderbilt (USA)

Year 1 Rotations:

• 1. 7 blocks (28 weeks) A&E

  2. 6 weeks medicine

  3. 6 weeks surgery.

  4. 4 weeks anesthesia

  5. 4 weeks obstetrics and gynaecology

  6. 4 weeks orthopaedics

  7. 2 weeks vacation

Year 2 Rotations:

• 1. 7 blocks (28 weeks) A&E

  2. 4 weeks critical care x2

  3. 2 weeks ENT

  4. 2 weeks ophthalmology.

  5. 4 weeks orthopaedics

  6. 4 weeks paediatric ward

  7. 4 weeks Vanderbilt observational rotation

  8. 2 weeks vacation taken from A&E blocks

Year 3 Rotations:

• 1. 7 blocks (28 weeks) A&E

  2. 4 weeks critical care

  3. 4 weeks Scholarly Project (A&E call)

  4. 4 weeks tox/ems / administration (A&E call)

  5. 4 weeks paediatric emergency medicine at UWI Mount Hope

  6. 8 weeks Outstation

  7. 2 weeks vacation from A&E, project or admin blocks

Workload

Residents will follow GMO clinical work hours while in A&E. In addition, residents will be expected to prepare for conference, (reading on patients, studying, preparing presentations), prepare other projects such as protocols, M&M, Scholarly projects, A&E improvement projects, etc....

Conference:

Residents will be expected to attend weekly conference on Tuesdays from 8a to 12p. Residents will be excused from conference if they are on vacation.

Typical Conference Components (subject to change):

• • Short quiz over weekly reading assignments from Rivers Review Text with discussion of answers. The entire text will be covered every two years

  • Lectures covering topics from emergency medicine core curriculum. Lectures will be provided by residents, GPHC faculty physicians, visiting physicians and Vanderbilt based faculty physicians via telecommunication.

  • resident case presentations, visual diagnosis review, x-rays, CT’s, EKG’s and ultrasound interpretation

  • monthly: simulation cases using the high fidelity simulator.

  • M&M

  • Journal Club

Resident Assessment/Evaluation

There will be several different methods of assessment to provide residents with daily, weekly, monthly and yearly feedback. Residents are evaluate following the 6 core competencies of residents:

• • Patient care

  • Medical knowledge

  • Practice based learning environment

  • Interpersonal and communications skills

  • Professionalism

  • Systems based practice

There will be several different methods of assessment to provide residents with daily, weekly, monthly and yearly feedback:

• • Daily interactions in the Accident and Emergency Department with faculty physicians, patients and consulting services will provide opportunities for immediate feedback on patient management, procedural skills and interpersonal communication.

  • There will be a weekly conference at which the resident will take a short written quiz over a reading assignment.

  • Residents will receive written evaluations at the end of each rotation from the faculty advisor for that rotation.

  • There will be a yearly inservice written examination.

  • A final exam composed of both written questions, oral case scenarios and practical cases will be administered before the completion of the program. A minimum pass mark of 70% is expected.

  • Each resident physician will have a biannual meeting with the program director to formally discuss current assessments as well as provide feedback for future progress. The resident physician is encouraged to meet with the program director any time they feel necessary.

Please note that rotations, conference schedule, and evaluations are subject to change.