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Switching specialties


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IM to EM will require lots of procedural training if doing anything more than uc/fast track type stuff. At a minimum you should get acls, atls, pals, and a difficult airway course. SEMPA puts on a good conference every year. EMRAP is a great study/cme program. 

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Agree 100% with EMRAP (C3 is great for basics, Corependium is in development, but a really good reference). There are also many very good free EM podcasts. I really like EMCast. Finally ECG Weekly with Amal Mattu is $26 per year and the best EKG tutorial out there in my opinion. 

In addition to what you can do at home, just be prepared to be uncomfortable for a while. Let the experienced PAs and docs know that you are highly motivated. When the opportunity arises, stay late to learn new procedures. Make friends with the consultants and pick their brains. 

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3 hours ago, CAAdmission said:

Learn to sew. And not nice, clean surgical incisions. You need things that look like the result of two hobos getting in a fight with a brick and a bicycle chain. 

yup, this. I worked at a trauma ctr for a while that used the PAs to clean up after the trauma team did the fun stuff. That basically meant spending hrs suturing up really ugly lacs down to bone. Think chainsaw vs thigh, thrown through a glass door, header from a two story roof onto the forehead, etc. Learn how to suture stellate lacs and flaps, lacs to the lips, nose, and ears. often ENT is not an option. . don't be afraid to debride nonviable tissue. at the same time know when to walk away from the table and say "this needs to be done in the OR".  Had a morbidly obese dm pt who was a smoker with a 15 cm wide and deep lac to the thigh from a fall in a gravel pit. There were hundreds of fbs in the wound. I xrayed it. looked like he lost a fight with a shotgun. ortho bitched and moaned and said I could do it in the ED....they then spent 2.5 hrs in the OR with the pt....closing that would just have invited a massive infection....

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