Description

The Critical Care Service (CCS) includes a core of physicians who care for critically ill patients in the medical and surgical intensive care units. The CCS consists of a staff consultant, senior residents or fellows, and junior residents. The group is assisted by critical care nurses, dietitians, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and pharmacists. Daily activities include morning and afternoon rounds, didactic lectures and tutorials, and bedside clinical teaching. The staff consultants come from the disciplines of anesthesiology and pulmonary medicine.

Specific goals

1. Learn about the diagnosis and management of acute organ failure, with particular emphasis on the cardiorespiratory system.
2. Gain experience dealing with a wide variety of acute emergencies and all aspects of respiratory care, including principles of ventilator management and airway management issues.
3. Become familiar with interpreting hemodynamic data, caring for postoperative surgical patients and managing critically ill medical patients.
4. Become familiar with the initial management of various forms of shock.
5. Become familiar with acid-base, fluids, electrolytes, and resuscitation end-points.
6. Become familiar with sedation and analgesia in the ICU.

Activity outline

While on the Critical Care Service, students are expected to take part in all activities of the service, including patient admission and workup, on-call duties (as outlined in the Guidelines for Medical Student Clerks Assigned to Internal Medicine Hospital Services), presentation of tutorials, and attendance at formal conferences. If the student wishes to spend time in a different ICU in order to gain experience with different patient populations, this may be allowed if the ICU schedules permit and will be addressed on an individual basis.  Please contact the program coordinator directly to initiate this request.

Method of evaluation

Per Mayo Clinic institutional policy, faculty and residents/fellows will not complete any outside evaluations. You will be provided with an electronic performance evaluation via Mayo Clinic’s MedHub portal. A final summative evaluation will be sent to you and your school official upon completion of your clerkship.

The program coordinator discusses these evaluations with the students when necessary. The program coordinator is available at any time before, during or after the rotation to discuss any concerns that should arise.