JWB77 Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 So apparently Nova Southeastern University is starting an online emergency medicine certificate program as an alternative to doing a residency. The program is 1 year long, and the inaugural class will start this Fall. It is 18 credits and tuition costs $10,800. One full weekend of onsite training is required. https://osteopathic.nova.edu/certificates/emergency-medicine-certificate.html What do you guys think? Obviously not as good as a real residency, but does it get a new grad significantly closer to an ER job? Is there a place for online "residencies"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted July 9, 2018 Moderator Share Posted July 9, 2018 This is not a residency or a viable alternative. Your 10k would be better spent going to conferences and taking acls, atls, pals, Apls, difficult airway, fccs, abls, also, u/s, etc types of courses..I did a program like this about 15 years ago and got a "post masters certificate in Emergency medicine" for 4 classes online over 1 year. My credits(just like this) were not transferable to another degree). Mine cost $3000 and gave me 16 units of cat 1 credit. I learned almost nothing and it had no impact on my future job trajectory. There are several other 1-2 year online EM certificate programs, all equally worthless. I know this has a few days on campus for skills, but for 10k you could get better hands on training by obtaining all the certs I listed above(yes, I took all of these after realizing I wasted my money on my online cert). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB77 Posted July 10, 2018 Author Share Posted July 10, 2018 Thanks for the heads up. As they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I hope this post can at least be a warning for other naive students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted July 10, 2018 Moderator Share Posted July 10, 2018 I sent an email to the director. The on campus time is one 3 day weekend. no additional certs are provided for this time on campus. go for the recognized cert programs like atls, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PACali Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 Residency is supposed to be hands on. I would rather go to Essential of EM by hippo education in Las Vegas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SERENITY NOW Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 I can not for the life of me understand why someone would drop that much money when there is so much incredible free (or nearly free) options openly available around the web, and this free content is often from the best lecturers in the country (....and could be found on a website like foamest.com ). There is no replacement for the clinical experiences of a residency, but you could to a certain extent learn some of the didactic components of a residency online by using these free resources. There are residency programs that have great websites that list out the content and lectures from their educational conference, tintinelli reading club questions, etc. You could also read through the residency blogs out there and pretend you are with them month by month as they rotate on different services, immersing yourself in that specialty's free online content. In my opinion that would be much more valuable than this course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB77 Posted July 10, 2018 Author Share Posted July 10, 2018 8 hours ago, SERENITY NOW said: I can not for the life of me understand why someone would drop that much money when there is so much incredible free (or nearly free) options openly available around the web, and this free content is often from the best lecturers in the country (....and could be found on a website like foamest.com ). There is no replacement for the clinical experiences of a residency, but you could to a certain extent learn some of the didactic components of a residency online by using these free resources. There are residency programs that have great websites that list out the content and lectures from their educational conference, tintinelli reading club questions, etc. You could also read through the residency blogs out there and pretend you are with them month by month as they rotate on different services, immersing yourself in that specialty's free online content. In my opinion that would be much more valuable than this course. Completely agree with the free resources and you should always be reading/studying on your own, but that's hard to put on a resume and convince an employer you know what you are doing. Beyond learning the skills and necessary knowledge, I think a lot of students look at a program like this as a resume booster. Like it has been stated in many other posts, new grads need to separate themselves from other PAs and NPs, and the best way to do that is a residency (completely agree). But, a residency is not an option for everyone, and it is good to know that a program like this is not a viable alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karebear12892 Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 This is nothing more than a revenue generating scheme. "Certificates" like this are the reason accreditation bodies need to be involved in standardizing postgraduate training programs for PA's. A new graduate who spends a year completing this program online is nowhere near having the EM skills of a new graduate who spends a year completing a fellowship/residency. You can read about airway management until your eyeballs fall out, but until you get out there and actually do one (or ten or fifty), you'll never become proficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SERENITY NOW Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 16 hours ago, JWB77 said: Completely agree with the free resources and you should always be reading/studying on your own, but that's hard to put on a resume and convince an employer you know what you are doing. Beyond learning the skills and necessary knowledge, I think a lot of students look at a program like this as a resume booster. Like it has been stated in many other posts, new grads need to separate themselves from other PAs and NPs, and the best way to do that is a residency (completely agree). But, a residency is not an option for everyone, and it is good to know that a program like this is not a viable alternative. You do make a good point - those aren't things that could really be put on a resume, but they certainly are things that would have a strong impact on me in the interviewing stage so I think it would still be practically helpful in the job application process. To know that someone's heart is set so much on the specialty that they are immersing themselves in FOAMed, reading tintinelli, learning from lectures given by the legends in the field... that really tells me that they are truly motivated to learn, they are resourceful, they know how to learn without needing their hands held, and will probably take off quickly at the job. I'd be impressed if I heard this from a graduating student or someone in urgent care trying to break into EM. If more resume boosters are needed to get into the interview stage, I agree with emedpa that the EM certs may provide some benefit, but at the end of the day many may have to relocate to the areas where they are short on EM providers or start with something like urgent care or trauma and bridge their way in to EM over time. Just my 2cents at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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