The emergency medicine rotation: a unique experience for medical students.

The objective of this study was to determine if an Emergency Medicine (EM) rotation for medical students offers a unique educational opportunity, and to document those experiences. Thirty-three medical students at one teaching hospital recorded in a computer database information about their patient encounters during EM and Internal Medicine (IM) rotations. Data collected included the types of patients seen, the level of participation in patient care and decision making, and procedures performed. A total of 2740 patient encounters were recorded, 1564 EM and 1176 IM. Students on EM rotations were more likely than students on IM rotations to be involved in the initial evaluation (93.1% vs. 47.0%, respectively), diagnosis (93.5% vs. 44.7%, respectively), and decision making (93.3% vs. 43.5%, respectively); they were also more likely to perform procedures (31.7% vs. 8.5%, respectively). There were significant differences in the patient populations and disease processes encountered on the two rotations as well.