Clinical Years

Critical Care Medicine Clerkship

The Critical Care Medicine Clerkship is a four-week experience in which students concentrate on issues related to the pathophysiologic derangements faced in intensive care units and coronary care units, including comprehensive evaluation and management of critically ill patients.

The subspecialty divisions predominantly involved in this clerkship are cardiology, pulmonary disease, critical care, cardiologic infectious diseases, and nephrology. The clerkship sites include the Medical Intensive Care Units at Bellevue, North Shore, and Tisch hospitals; Bellevue's Cardiac Care Unit; and the Lenox Hill, NYU Downtown, and VA system hospitals, each of which has a combined general medical and cardiac care unit.

Students work closely with house staff and fellows on the various units, and attend didactic conferences and daily bedside teaching sessions performed by attending physicians. Once a month, all students participate in Palliative Care rounds at Tisch Hospital in order to expose them to the bioethical and end-of-life issues that are faced so often in the critical care setting.