Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health

Introduction: Establishing a boot camp curriculum is pertinent for emergency medicine (EM) residents in order to develop proficiency in a large scope of procedures and leadership skills.  In this article, we describe our program’s EM boot camp curriculum as well as measure the confidence levels of resident physicians through a pre- and post-boot camp survey.

Methods: We designed a one-month boot camp curriculum with the intention of improving the confidence, procedural performance, leadership, communication and resource management of EM interns. Our curriculum consisted of 12 hours of initial training and culminated in a two-day boot camp. The initial day consisted of clinical skill training and the second day included code drill scenarios followed by interprofessional debriefing.  

Results: Twelve EM interns entered residency with an overall confidence score of 3.2 (1-5 scale) across all surveyed skills. Interns reported the highest pre-survey confidence scores in suturing (4.3) and genitourinary exams (3.9). The lowest pre-survey confidence score was in thoracostomy (2.4). Following the capstone experience, overall confidence scores increased to 4.0. Confidence increased the most in defibrillation and thoracostomy. Additionally, all interns reported post-survey confidence scores of at least 3.0 in all skills, representing an internal anchor of “moderately confident/need guidance at times to perform procedure.”

Conclusion: At the completion of the boot camp curriculum, EM interns had improvement in self-reported confidence across all surveyed skills and procedures. The described EM boot camp curriculum was effective, feasible and provided a foundation to our trainees during their first month of residency. [West J Emerg Med. 2015;16(2):356–361.]