Four- or Eight-Week Sessions offered monthly August through June, inclusive

Prerequisite: Completion of third-year medical school clerkships

Course Coordinator
Michael A Solomon, MD

Course Description
The Critical Care Medicine Department's (CCMD) training program invites medical students in their fourth year to a four- or eight-week clinical rotation in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center (CC). The CC is the site of intramural clinical research for the NIH. People from all over the world participate in approximately 1,000 research protocols conducted by the various institutes and centers. The CCMD provides medical, cardiac, and surgical ICU services for critically ill adult and pediatric patients enrolled in intramural NIH research protocols. The ICU is staffed by senior physicians and medical fellows with expertise in critical care medicine, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and anesthesiology. The ICU (capacity: 18 beds) will evaluate any patient from any service within the CC at the request of the patient's primary physician. The ICU is equipped with state-of-the-art cardiovascular and respiratory support services well suited to the care of patients with multi-system organ failure. The student is expected to be an integral part of the ICU team. Work rounds start at 6:30 a.m. and are followed by microbiology rounds. There are also daily afternoon sign-out (work) rounds. A Tuesday and Thursday morning (8:30–9:30 a.m.) lecture series reviews pertinent clinical and research topics in critical care medicine. Students would be expected to attend morning rounds (Monday –Friday), be present at morning lectures, participate in evaluating and treating patients transferred to the ICU under the supervision of the staff physician, and avail themselves of the outstanding electronic/library resources available at NIH to review existing literature pertinent to the clinical problems discussed on morning rounds. Students will also have the opportunity under the supervision of the staff physician to become skilled in the placement of a variety of intravascular catheters. There is no required evening or weekend duty.

Course Objectives

• Gain clinical experience in providing thoughtful and expedient, quality care for critically ill patients.
• Learn the procedural and intellectual skills required of a critical care physician.
• Effectively communicate medical information to patients and their families, ancillary medical staff, and fellow physicians.
• Gain information about Critical Care Medicine training opportunities at the NIH.

Selection of Applicants
The program can accommodate one student per month.

Attending Staff

• John Biegel, MD
• Robert L. Danner, MD
• Peter Eichacker, MD
• Mark T. Gladwin, MD
• Roberto Machado, MD
• Henry Masur, MD
• Dorothy McAreavey, MD
• Charles Natanson, MD
• Frederick P. Ognibene, MD
• Naomi O'Grady, MD
• James Shelhamer, MD
• Michael A. Solomon, MD
• Anthony F. Suffredini, MD