The University of Nebraska Medical Center has formed a residency program
in emergency medicine, and the new program should benefit the emergency
care of citizens across Nebraska and the region.
The first six physicians of the UNMC Emergency Medicine Residency Program
will begin their three-year residencies in July 2004. Physicians complete
residencies, or advanced training in medical specialties, after they graduate
from medical school.
Were very excited for the residency program to begin, said Robert
Muelleman, M.D., chief of the section of emergency medicine at UNMC and
director of emergency services at UNMCs hospital partner, The Nebraska
Medical Center. Only about one-third of the physicians practicing emergency
medicine in Western Iowa and Nebraska are residency-trained and board-certified,
and most of those physicians are in Lincoln and Omaha.
The residency program is the first in the Great Plains region, Dr. Muelleman
said. That region encompasses about 20 percent of the land mass of the
continental United States, including all of Nebraska, South Dakota, North
Dakota and Kansas; western Oklahoma and Texas; and eastern New Mexico,
Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The closest emergency medicine residencies
in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago, dont provide many residents
in rural areas, Dr. Muelleman said.
Were hoping that through this residency, more emergency medicine-certified
physicians will practice in rural Nebraska, he said.
Dr. Muelleman credited the leaders of UNMC and The Nebraska Medical
Center with helping to make the residency program a reality. He noted the
work of UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., College of Medicine Dean
James O. Armitage, M.D., and Glenn Fosdick, chief executive officer of
The Nebraska Medical Center.
Were excited that the emergency residency program has been approved,
Dr. Armitage said. Without question, this emergency residency program
will be one based on excellence, both in its educational environment and
its clinical opportunities.
Said Fosdick: Our patients and ER team will be shaping the future of
emergency room physicians who will take their clinical experiences and
build on them throughout their careers. This program furthers our commitment
to patients across the region by training ER doctors and sending them where
they are needed.
Dr. Maurer said the program is another example of UNMC being at the
forefront of serving residents of the Great Plains.
This residency program certainly fills a need in health care for this
region, Dr. Maurer said. We look forward to the first class of residents
beginning next summer.
Michael Wadman, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine at UNMC,
will direct the residency program.
The goal of the University of Nebraska Emergency Medicine Residency
Program is to provide residents with outstanding clinical and educational
experiences in emergency medicine, Dr. Wadman said.
He noted that the residencys didactic program will feature a monthly
lab session with in-depth instruction combined with hands-on experience
in selected emergency procedures, in addition to a weekly lecture series.
Dr. Muelleman noted that potential residents who may be wary of a first-time
residency program should rest assured: the emergency residency program
review is very stringent.
Potential residents can be assured that the clinical and educational
resources are in place to prepare them to become skilled board certified
emergency physicians, Dr. Muelleman said. Our faculty members trained
at six different residencies; have anywhere from one to 20 years of clinical
experience; have been educating medical students, residents and practicing
physicians for several years; and since January, 1997 have published 39
peer-reviewed articles, presented at national and international meetings
and have contributed 68 chapters to 10 textbooks.
Beginning in 2005, the residents will practice in one of the largest
emergency departments in the region. The new emergency department, now
under construction at The Nebraska Medical Center, will have 20,000 square
feet, 16 exam rooms, 13 critical care rooms, eight observation rooms and
four trauma beds.
A unique feature of the UNMC residency, Dr. Muelleman said, will be
two, month-long rotations at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff.
The western Nebraska hospital has five board-certified emergency medicine
physicians on its staff.
We wanted to expose the residents to rural Nebraska, Dr. Muelleman
said. The rotations in Scottsbluff will be a great opportunity for them.
We hope that some of them will think about continuing to practice in rural
parts of the state, after their residencies are complete.
Dr. Muelleman said that injury death rates are higher in rural areas
than in urban areas. He hopes the new residency program will help to improve
rural emergency-room care. Another way in which UNMC hopes to improve that
care is through an annual conference for those emergency-medicine providers
in rural areas who dont have advanced, formal emergency-medicine training.
The first such conference is scheduled for March 18-20 in Omaha.
It will be several years before this residency program can saturate
the hospitals across the state with physicians who are board-certified
in emergency medicine, Dr. Muelleman. Even then, there still will be
hospitals whose ERs are staffed by on-call family physicians. We hope
that these conferences will provide those physicians with essential skills
training to handle both medical and traumatic emergencies.
The emergency-medicine residency, Dr. Muelleman said, will help to prevent
the brain drain of physicians who want to practice emergency medicine.
Until now, only one-third of students who leave Nebraska to receive their
emergency-medicine residency return to the region.
Its been shown that a vast majority of physicians practice where they
have their last training, Dr. Muelleman said. This residency will keep
more emergency medicine-certified physicians in this region, and ultimately
will provide the best care for patients who need emergency services.