Didactic Curriculum
At Hackensack University Medical Center, our commitment to resident education extends far beyond bedside clinical teaching. We have designed a robust, multi-faceted curriculum that covers the full spectrum of Emergency Medicine, ensuring our trainees develop into exceptional, board-certified clinicians and future leaders in the field.
Weekly Conference
Our curriculum features five hours of highly interactive didactics every Wednesday. We take "protected time" seriously: to maximize attendance and prioritize resident well-being, our faculty independently staff the ED on Tuesday nights. This ensures no resident will ever work an ED night shift prior to conference, allowing everyone to arrive rested, focused, and ready to learn.
To ensure our in-person time is as engaging as possible, we utilize Google Classroom to disseminate pre-reading materials and asynchronous learning modules ahead of time. Sessions integrate high-yield, board-relevant core EM topics with longitudinal tracks in ultrasound, pharmacology, toxicology, research, and humanism in medicine.
Lectures are led by our fellowship-trained EM and Pediatric EM faculty, specialized ED pharmacists, distinguished regional guest speakers, and our own residents. To foster hospital-wide collaboration, we regularly host multidisciplinary Grand Rounds and joint Morbidity & Mortality (M&M) conferences with other specialty departments.
Daily Morning Report
Education is seamlessly woven into the daily rhythm of our department. Every morning, our night and day teams converge for a protected 30-minute didactic session right in the ED. This interactive huddle sets the clinical tone for the day and features a rotating schedule of resident-led case discussions, and rapid-fire clinical vignettes.
To ensure the educational value extends beyond those working clinically, all Morning Report cases, EKG findings, and clinical pearls are immediately disseminated department-wide through a dedicated Google Chat channel, keeping our entire team connected and learning even when they are off-shift.
Immersive Simulation
HUMC is proud to offer a premier simulation experience, anchored by our department's own dedicated simulation center. Equipped with multiple high-fidelity mannequins and state-of-the-art task trainers, the center provides a safe environment to master critical interventions.
Twice a week, we take this training directly to the clinical environment with in situ simulations led by our dedicated faculty, allowing residents to practice leading resuscitations in real-time. We frequently expand these into high-impact multidisciplinary exercises, including ECPR with Cardiothoracic Surgery, precipitous deliveries with OB/GYN, and mass casualty incident (MCI) drills with EMS and Trauma.
Furthermore, monthly simulation sessions during weekly conference provide dedicated, hands-on practice for mastering high-risk, low-frequency procedures.
Monthly Journal Club
Evidence-based medicine is the cornerstone of our clinical practice, and our Monthly Journal Club is a favorite tradition among our team. Once a month, faculty and residents gather in a relaxed, social setting—often off-campus—to share a meal and dive deep into the medical literature.
Rather than a dry lecture, these are lively debates where we critically appraise both foundational "landmark" papers and the latest research. Our curriculum is designed so that residents graduate with advanced skills in biostatistics, study design analysis, and critical appraisal, ultimately learning how to translate best evidence into bedside practice.
National & Regional Conferences
We actively support our residents in expanding their educational footprint and professional networks beyond our hospital walls. To ensure broad exposure to the specialty, the program sponsors all of our residents to attend both the New Jersey ACEP Scientific Assembly and the national ACEP Scientific Assembly.
Furthermore, to reward and encourage scholarly activity, the department fully sponsors attendance for any resident who has a research submission or abstract accepted as a first author or primary presenter at any regional or national conference.