EM Club members during the ACOEP National Assembly
Medicine Club didn’t always exist at UNE COM.
Duane Siberski, DO ’92, an emergency medicine physician at Penn State Health St. Joseph's Medical Center in Reading, PA, remembers a time when emergency medicine was thought to not necessarily align with the college’s mission. “There was some pushback from the administration that you're all going to be family practitioners. I said no, I'm going to be primary care, but I knew I wanted emergency medicine.” Eventually the club was permitted, and ultimately served as a resource for the school. “Some of us were Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support instructors,” Dr. Siberski explains. “So we taught our fellow students as we taught physicians in our previous careers.” Since other students at UNE COM weren’t licensed EMTs or paramedics, they hadn’t been exposed to what emergency medicine was like. “Having the Emergency Medicine Club gives you the ability to go out and ask if this is what I want to do.” Dr. Siberski arrived at medical school knowing he wanted to become an Emergency Medicine physician, but most students when they matriculate are unsure of what specialty will appeal to them. Becoming an active participant in club activities gives them a new perspective, experience and skillset for them to make better informed decisions about their future as physicians.
Since its induction as a club, emergency medicine (EM) has become one of the most popular specialties for UNE COM graduates. From 2015-19, 11% of COM graduates did their post graduate training in EM, the third highest behind Family Medicine and Internal Medicine. In 2019 alone, 12% of graduates matched into EM residency programs. Current co-president of the EM Club, Cassidy Cunningham, COM ’22, says of her experience, “Being in the club has solidified my love for emergency medicine and I look forward to pursuing the career over the next few years.”
Kaitlyn De Stefano, COM ’22 is the other co-president of the EM Club. For her, the club compliments her academic experience by “providing extra hands on experience… allow[ing] us to put into practice things we have learned clinically.” For example, Student Doctor Cunningham states, “we hold airway and suture clinics four times a year, teaching sutures that we may use in emergency situations, along with how to intubate. We also co-sponsored the Clinical Practice Conference (CPC) on human trafficking to help educate our classmates on how to identify trafficking victims and survivors as we will inevitably see them as patients. We also hold basic and advanced ultrasound clinics to learn techniques, such as the eFAST exam that will be used in trauma assessments.” The clinics and other activities provide opportunities for first- and second-year COM students to practice skills outside the classroom in a less formalized, hands-on environment, as well as get a feel for the unique brand of emergency medicine.
In addition to participation in the various events and workshops, the EM Club provides tiered opportunities for students to teach what they are learning to other students. “The EM Club also has given a lot of students the unique position of being able to teach [Clinical Anatomy] for a variety of groups including EMTs, paramedics, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers,” Student Doctor De Stefano explains. "As a second