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year, the opportunities grow with being able to assist in ultrasound clinics, airway and suture clinics.”
Since moving back to Pennsylvania after residency training, Dr. Siberski has re-established connections with UNE COM’s EM Club and teaches the group often. This past October, Dr. Siberski presented a talk entitled, “Active Shooter/Hostile Event: Who, What, When, Why, How to Prepare?” at UNE COM’s Fall CME & Reunion weekend. The lecture touched on general preparedness for medical students and physicians, and highlighted the various local and national trainings the EM Club has been involved with, including tactical training with the Region 2 Tactical Emergency Medical Services (R2TEMS) at UNE COM, and a Mass Casualty Incident Training with the Chicago Police and Fire Departments at the ACOEP National Assembly. The CME lecture included Dr. Siberski’s involvement in a manhunt to locate an active shooter in Blooming Grove, PA. The suspect shot two police officers and was planning on targeting other law enforcement personnel in September 12, 2014. State Police activated the Region 2 Tactical Emergency Medical Services (R2TEMS) with the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team (PSP SERT), and Dr. Siberski, along with other medical professionals, provided medical care to the search team throughout the manhunt. “Medics were part of searches and moved with law enforcement teams of some of the most highly trained in the nation,” he explains during his CME lecture. Medical personnel had to be alert and prepared for a range of possible afflictions, everything from a gunshot wound, snakebite, hypothermia, and other possible injuries. As an osteopathic physician, Dr. Siberski was able to offer osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) during the long lasting search, which finally concluded on October 30th with the successful apprehension of the suspect.
Dr. Siberski is a great example of the cross-pollination happening, where UNE COM alumni and students are working together in symbiosis, helping each other in preparing the next generation of healthcare and emergency personnel. “We try to network with many emergency physicians and gain their pearls of wisdom that we can utilize as we move through medical school and in the future,” Student Doctor Cunningham states. The club has recently expanded its outreach beyond the borders of UNE COM by implementing a social media presence with a student-run Instagram account. Not only are they better able to connect with past club members off on rotations, but they are consistently communicating to prospective students and alumni as they highlight their events and conferences. The account has solidified their presence at UNE COM and established them as a resource for both students and the community.
This year, the growing momentum paid off when it was announced that UNE COM’s EM Club was selected as the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians Resident Student Organization (ACOEP RSO) Club of the Year Winner at the Scientific Assembly in Austin, Texas on November 3rd, 2019. The club was initially congratulated via email by Clairisse Hafey, OMS-IV, Director of Student Affairs for ACOEP RSO. In her correspondence, she wrote, “It is a tremendous accomplishment that your club has achieved, with a lot of hard work that was surely put forth by your student club board and members. With competition from other osteopathic medical schools throughout the United States, your club achieved the highest ranking through meeting and surpassing membership requirements.”
The club submitted their application back in May 2019 and included work from the current EM Club presidents as well as the presidents from 2018, third-year COM students, Riley Liptak and Molly Kaminsky. According to Student Doctor De Stefano, “To qualify we had to attend 3/4 conference calls, have a visit from our RSO Board Mentor, do outreach events on social media, have a minimum four club meetings in the year, as well as received extra points for fundraising events, journal clubs, RSO approved speakers, and attendance at national symposiums.” Student Doctor Cunningham was one of the many EM Club members who flew to Austin to accept the award: “The club was ecstatic to find out that we won… We put a lot of time and effort into bringing events to the school to introduce medical students to clinical skills they will use during audition rotations for fourth year, along with hosting a variety of speakers, and we are happy that the ACOEP recognized our team.”
As the end of the semester approaches, and new leadership emerges for the spring, the Emergency