Emergency Medicine Residency Program
Message from the Department Chair
It is with great personal pride that our Department graduated its eleventh class of residents this past July, and began our fourteenth full year. Late summer and fall is always a very exciting time of year, as we’ve said goodbye to our graduates (and hear from them in their new positions!), have welcomed and oriented an eager intern class and began mentoring new senior students rotating in the Department. Our graduation dinner is always a very special event, and allows our graduates to speak from their heart regarding their training, and how prepared they feel going out in the “real world”. They earnestly felt mentored, encouraged and developed at the appropriate pace. Opportunities to pursue specific scholarly interests were available and capitalized upon. Many tears were shed, lots of hugs and looking forward to sharing in their future accomplishments. I truly savor and take pride in our graduates and look forward to nurturing each individual and class. I’d like to share a typical email message I receive from a recent graduate of our residency:
“As I started practicing Emergency Medicine in Philadelphia for the first few weeks, I realize every day more and more what a superior training I received at Cooper. I am so grateful to all my attendings and to you as a chairman for a great job in teaching residents. On few occasions, our residents told me that they could not believe that I am straight out of residency and didn't work elsewhere for few years as an attending. They mentioned knowledge and calmness during resuscitations as the reasons. Well, I thought, if one can the handle Cooper ED after such a great training, one can handle anything! Thank you, Dr. Chansky, for all your efforts to make Cooper such a great residency, and thanks to all my attendings for their teaching, mentoring, and support.”
The Cooper Health System is vibrant and thriving in South Jersey and our ED census is over 60,000 patients per year, with 13,000 being children. I have been in a leadership role at Cooper and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for 24 years and Emergency Medicine has the utmost respect of other Departments and the Dean. In 1997 we were the 54th academic department of Emergency Medicine established in the country. In 2004 we joined an elite group of departments of Emergency Medicine with NIH grant support. I am actively involved in every strategic decision that impacts Emergency Medicine, and meet regularly with the CEO and COO of Cooper University Hospital, and the Dean of RWJMS. This means I have the clout and authority to continually improve operations in the ED, our residency, fellowship, student programs, and clinical research.
Our graduates are extremely competitive in both academic and community positions’, receiving multiple job offers. Expertise in interpreting EKG’s, disaster preparedness, ultrasound, pediatrics, trauma, toxicology, goal directed therapy in sepsis and, induced hypothermia in cardiac arrest, makes our graduates very attractive, and recent graduates have been recruited primarily to develop an ultrasound or shock program. We have succeeded meeting our goal of providing the highest quality emergency care for our patients, while teaching the future clinicians and leaders of our specialty. First and foremost we take superb care of our patients, and have complete autonomy in their care. Second, we are fully dedicated to medical education. My personal philosophy is to work many clinical shifts, which allows me to get to know and interact with every resident and most rotating students. You will not find a more supportive environment in which to train. I look forward to focusing all my efforts, and those of my diverse faculty, to your education in the Emergency Department.
Emergency Medicine at Cooper was the most popular elective in the medical school, and the students pushed for and succeeded developing a curricular change including a 4 week mandatory EM rotation which began in July, 2007. Cooper's commitment to undergraduate education was confirmed with the recent announcement of our partnership with Rowan University to form South Jersey's first allopathic four year school. Our six-member division of pediatric emergency medicine and PEM fellow provides state-of-the-art pediatric care and education in an adjacent yet separate Pediatric ED. Ultrasound is utilized daily in our practice. We are actively involved in the Camden community, providing services at a shelter for battered women and speaking engagements. The past six years we have had an emphasis on evidence based medicine in both our practice and journal club. All of our residents are involved in a clinical research or other approved scholarly project, and I am dedicated to fully supporting resident and faculty scholarly activity. The past twenty-four months we have funded several initiatives to study and address ED throughput, utilize a modular curriculum, expanded Faculty coverage of the ED for specific teaching, built a new FAST track, and received over $800,000 in NIH grant support, collaboratively instituted digital PAX radiography and EPIC clinical tracking and discharge instruction system, just to name a few of our notable accomplishments. A 14,000 square foot addition and complete renovation of the ED has completed two phases, and is on target for April, 2010. The core faculty have just moved into new administrative space adjacent to the ED. Cooper University Hospital has added much needed critical care and operating room space, and upgrading information technology.
I take the time to meet and welcome every interviewee to our Department and should you decide to interview, I am confident you will find the time committed worthwhile. Students who have not had the opportunity to rotate through our department will have ample time to talk to our residents. Your biggest challenge will be selecting the program that fits your individual needs.
I hope this additional information assists you in your decision. My office door is always open, and I encourage you to contact me, our Program Director, individual faculty or any of our past or current residents with any future questions. You are always welcome to spend an evening with any faculty member during a clinical shift to better appreciate our unique, upbeat atmosphere. We practice academic emergency medicine with a superb nursing staff and support services. My faculty love emergency medicine at Cooper, and our residents are very special, integral members of our Department. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to join us!
Michael Chansky, M.D.
Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine