Surgical Critical Care Fellowship - Curriculum

EM-SCC : The Prelim Year

The surgical prelim year is designed to introduce EM-SCC fellows to surgical services and create a foundation of knowledge for the second year of critical care fellowship training. The prelim year is structured to provide 9-10 months of experience on various surgical services in addition to 2-3 months of critical care. The expectation while rotating on a surgical service is that the EM fellow will be functioning at an intermediate-level surgical resident and will be managing complex surgical disease at the sickest hospital in the country (per Case-Mix Index).

During the fellow’s time on a surgical service the fellow will perform typical responsibilities of a surgical resident including seeing consults in the emergency department or ICU, rounding with the team, performing bedside procedures, and participating in operative cases. On the trauma teams, the fellow will be acting as a true fellow and will be leading a team of 5-10 residents in conjunction with the advanced practice providers. Fellows will be expected to manage trauma admissions/ resuscitations, lead daily rounds, and ensure the trauma service’s running smoothly.

Training Pathways

Beginning in August 2020, EM-SCC fellows are asked to designate a specific pathway, based on their future career interests in either surgical critical care or cardiac surgery critical care. The pathways are designed to help the fellow best prepare for their future roles in the critical care environment. The preliminary year is the same, regardless of pathway, and fellows are not asked to designated a pathway until their semi-annual review in the early calendar year.

Surgical Critical Care (SCC) Pathway

The surgical critical care pathway emphasizes more traditional surgical critical care environments. The first year includes at least 8 months of critical care training with months on the Trauma Teams, vascular services, 2 months on the Acute Care Emergency Surgery (ACES) service, as well as many others. The remaining 4 months are composed of critical care months within the Shock Trauma Center.  The second year is predominantly focused on critical care with nearly 10 months of critical care rotations ranging from trauma, to cardiac, to surgical critical care.

By the end of the second year, the fellow will be well prepared to sit for the SCC board examination as well as begin their career as a surgical critical care intensivist.

Cardiac Surgery Critical Care (CSCC) Pathway

The cardiac surgery critical care pathway allows the fellow to focus their experience on advanced cardiac disease and mechanical support while also integrating the traditional surgical critical care rotations.