Author: Linda Katirji MD, University of Kentucky and Adam Kellogg MD, University of Massachusetts – Baystate Health, on behalf of the CORD Student Advisement Task Force (SATF)

This week the CORD SATF met at ACEP’s Scientific Assembly in Washington, D.C.  With the rapidly changing climate of the residency application and match process, SATF continues to work to improve advising for students in what can be a difficult time to be an EM applicant. This post serves as a brief update from our meeting.

Advising Guidance

One focus of the SATF efforts has been to increase the quality and consistency of medical student advising.  This led to the creation of the EM Applying Guide as well as multiple addenda for special populations.  These guides contain the best practices of the CORD and CDEM (Clerkship Directors in Emergency Medicine) community and the current best available evidence (limited as that may be).  And they have been endorsed by CORD, CDEM and EMRA (the Emergency Medicine Residents Associations).  These documents are currently undergoing minor revisions, updating, and approval.  The most up to date versions can always be found on the SATF page of the CORD website.  Our goal is to continue to effectively and widely disperse these resources to medical students and those who advise them.

Evidence Based Advising

As noted above, the current best-advising practices suffer from a lack of an evidence basis.  The SATF is striving to address that.  In addition to publishing Advising Recommendations, the SATF also has several research projects ongoing to enhance the information coming from the task force.  We also seek to publicize important work in this area, like that of Jeff Van Dermark’s team on the financial realities of the match process (recently highlighted on the Vocal CORD).

EMRA Match Updates

This year saw several upgrades to EMRA Match.  Thanks to the participation of the CORD membership EMRA Match has become the place to find useful and current information on EM residency programs.

In addition to adding searchable fields for “Number of SLOE’s for Interview” and “Visa Sponsorship”, programs can now supply a focussed (700 characters) message to applicants on their “Program Culture” and what they are looking for.  If you need to update any information or submit a “Program Culture” description, just click the “pencil” icon on your Programs “More Information” page.

Look for the next upgrade coming to EMRA Match with the debut of the Clerkship Match database.  All the great features and interface as EMRA Residency Match, but for Clerkships!  When this wonderful new resource comes on line in January it will be populated with the ~150 clerkships that submitted their data in the initial collection.  Once up and running additional clerkships can be added as new submissions right on the site.

Outreach

In addition to the above, in the coming year we will continue to work on innovative ways to reach those most in need of advising resources –  medical students without a home EM residency.  We are always seeking new ideas and new members with an interest in student advising.