PGY-2 Emergency Medicine Rotations

This is a month-long rotation at Morristown Medical Center. The resident will be a part of the multidisciplinary team that cares for patients in the emergency department. The primary focus of this rotation will be critically ill patients. Residents are expected to take an active role in the care of critically ill patients. Medical emergencies will include but, are not limited to, stroke, MI, cardiac arrests, and trauma alerts. The goal of this rotation is to introduce the resident to the resuscitation workflow and patient population with a focus on collection and analysis of patient information.

This month-long rotation will focus on the care of critically ill patients and those presenting to the ED with infectious complaints. The primary focus of this rotation will be critically ill and infected patients. Residents are expected to take an active role in the care of critically ill patients. Medical emergencies will include but, are not limited to, stroke, MI, cardiac arrests, and trauma alerts. The goal of this rotation is to reinforce and build upon infectious disease concepts on empiric treatment and application to the ED workflow and patient population with a focus on collection and analysis of patient information.

The focus of this month-long rotation will be exposure to solidify learning on non-emergent conditions that may present to the emergency department. The goal of the topics discussed on this rotation is to reinforce and build upon an understanding of outpatient treatments and the care of patients that will be discharged from the emergency department. The overall goal of the rotation is to allow the resident to practice nearly independently in preparation for completion of the residency.

A layered learning model will be applied where the EM resident acts as the “senior” resident reporting to the EM pharmacist preceptor. There will be either a PGY-1 resident or student assigned to the EM resident with the goal to develop a teaching style and gain experience as a preceptor.

This emergency medicine pharmacy rotation at Overlook Medical Center Summit and Union campus is to provide the PGY-2 resident the opportunity to work as part of the interdisciplinary team in a community teaching hospital and a satellite Emergency Department. The 48-bed and 20-bed emergency departments for the Summit and Union campus respectively, services a wide range of patient populations from pediatrics to adults and specializes in neurological care including stroke management.  The purpose of this rotation is to allow the resident to further develop and enhance pharmacotherapeutic skills required for provision of care in emergent treatment of patients.  In addition, this rotation will focus on strengthening independence for the resident to manage all clinical and operational responsibilities.  

The goal of this rotation is to provide experience with temporal differences when working in the Emergency Department. The resident will be prepared to manage time and schedule to better prepare for expansion in the Emergency Department workforce into this shift schedule.

During this first rotation, the Emergency Medicine resident will become familiar with policies and procedures that govern medication utilization at Morristown Medical Center. While orienting to the hospital, a focus will be placed on response to emergency situations and workflow in the Emergency Department. This will prepare the resident for staffing in the Emergency Department.

This rotation is designed to provide residents with an understanding of disease states and conditions commonly seen in the pediatric intensive care unit. Emphasis will be placed on the therapeutic management of pediatric intensive care patients and the unique pharmacological/pharmaceutical requirements of these patients. This rotation will also provide an opportunity to participate in pediatric emergencies as well as in the management of enteral and parenteral nutrition.

This month-long learning experience is designed to build upon prior rotation experiences and develop new skills in toxicology through the care of toxicologic patients at the NJ Poison Control Center (PCC), bedside care at the Morristown Medical Center Emergency Department , and topic discussions. The resident will also be exposed to the role of the Poison Control Center in the healthcare and the community. Emphasis will be placed on physical exam and patient evaluation, pharmacodynamics and toxicokinetics, supportive care, and antidote therapy.

Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) rotation is a month-long learning experience at Morristown Medical Center. The SICU is a 22-bed unit for critically ill trauma and surgery patients. The multidisciplinary team consists of a trauma attending, surgical resident, emergency medicine resident, clinical pharmacy specialist, bedside nurse, and respiratory therapist. The resident will be exposed to a wide variety of disease states commonly encountered in the adult SICU setting and will become familiar with the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics of the drugs used in this setting. Common disease states in which residents will be expected to gain proficiency through literature review, topic discussion, and/or direct patient care experience may include, but are not limited to traumatic brain injury/intracranial hemorrhage, surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis, surgical infectious complications, nutrition and fluid/electrolytes management.

The cardiology rotation is designed to give residents an opportunity to experience various cardiology settings from the outpatient clinic (heart failure) to critical care areas (CCU, CVICU, cardiothoracic ICU). Responsibilities of this rotation include, but are not limited to, daily attending rounds in the CCU, identification and resolution of any medication-related issues, evaluation of medical regimens for appropriateness and patient counseling.

This rotation emphasizes the understanding and management of problems specifically related to critically ill medical patients. Identification of patient problems and application of clinical therapeutics to the critically ill patient will be stressed. Specific topics discussed include hemodynamic and physiologic monitoring, pharmacokinetic monitoring and infectious problems in critically ill patients.  During the critical care rotation, residents will round with the medical team in a 10-bed MICU at Morristown Medical Center.

The Neurosciences Intensive Care (Neuro-ICU) rotation is a one-month learning experience at Overlook Medical Center, the flagship site of the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute and a designated Comprehensive Stroke Center. Residents help manage pharmacotherapy for a spectrum of critically ill neurologically injured patients ranging from acute ischemic stroke, ruptured brain aneurysms, intracranial hemorrhage, status epilepticus, post-operative neurosurgical oncology patients and many others. The resident works collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, neurointensivists, advanced practice providers, and nurses to deliver the highest quality care in our renowned Neuro-ICU. Residents will focus on drug selection and dosing, identification of drug interactions, therapeutic drug monitoring, and management of drug-related adverse events.

The toxicology II rotation is a one-month learning experience that will provide the resident with the opportunity to expand upon prior toxicology rotation experiences. The resident will rotate through the Morristown Medical Center (MMC) emergency department (ED). Throughout the rotation, the resident will also correspond with the primary preceptor, both in-person and remotely, to review select topic discussions and rotation progress.  

This acute care rotation will demonstrate the pharmacist’s impact on improving outcomes, reducing readmissions and improving patient quality of life. The resident will practice transitioning the patient to and from different settings for a core set of disease states, which will include, but not limited to cardiac, pulmonary, endocrine and infectious diseases. He or she will also have an opportunity to manage patients independently while working with physicians, nurses and other medical providers. Activities will include obtaining medication history, monitoring and optimization of therapy during hospital stays, reviewing medication reconciliation on discharge, assisting with access to medications, and providing patient education on medications and disease states.

Practice management is a year-long longitudinal rotation that encompasses a variety of clinical, operational, and academic activities to build the resident's skill set. The resident will work closely with preceptors to develop and complete the following: i) Formal didactic lecture presented to the RN Hire Learners, ii) Formal didactic lecture presented to the Emergency Medicine Program's conference day, and iii) medication use evaluation. Additionally, the resident will provide service to the Morristown Medical Center Sepsis Committee, attend Critical Care Pharmacy monthly meetings, review adverse event reports related to the Emergency Department, and may provide service to other committees based on institutional need. The resident may also participate in longitudinal assignments including development of drug monographs, clinical practice guidelines, or multidisciplinary education.

The MUE rotation is a 6-month longitudinal rotation that will have the resident plan, develop, and complete an administrative project. The goal of the project will be to analyze the use of medication(s) in the treatment of disease to try to improve outcomes for our patient population

In conjunction with Atlantic Mobile Health, the Emergency Medicine resident will participate in the treatment of patients by paramedics. The objective will be for the resident to become familiar with protocols and medication utilization in the pre-hospital environment.

The Emergency Medicine resident will design, administer, and lead the research team to complete a project that will add to current literature on medication utilization in the Emergency Department. Research time will be assigned in December for time intensive tasks. A medication utilization or disease state review may also be completed during the residency year