The didactics at UT Southwestern consist of a teaching lecture series, practical lab sessions, simulation labs, M & M conferences, journal clubs, advanced life support classes, radiology reviews, ECG reviews, resident case conferences, EMS base station course, and much, much more!

Conference takes place on Thursdays from 0800 - 1200, and residents are excused from clinical duty during this time. There is also a 0730 - 0930 conference series for interns and medical students on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings which covers core topics in emergency medicine, such as wound management, back/knee evaluation, altered mental status evaluation, burn management, etc.

Lecture Series:

Structured to cover the RRC's core curriculum every 18 months. Lectures are given by UT Southwestern faculty from all departments, as well as visiting faculty and senior residents. Special areas, such as EMS, resuscitation, core competencies, research and administration, are also covered. 

Grand Rounds

See the Grand Rounds & Journal Club Link for more information.

Practical Lab Sessions:

Splinting and procedure labs are held to hone the skills of the residents. There is an annual cadaver lab to teach more invasive procedures such as thoracotomies and crycothyrotomies, in case your significant other won't volunteer.  We also hold an annual airway lab designed to give residents a broad range of experience with multiple tools to help with the difficulty airway including fiberoptic intubations, video laryngoscopy, retrograde intubation, needle cricothyrotomy, and management of pediatric airways.  Several lecture sessions are also dedicated to doing simulation cases both in the sim labs and in small groups covering board review cases.

Morbidity & Mortality:

Selected cases are reviewed for teaching and quality improvement.

Journal Club:

A critical review of articles pertinent to emergency medicine. These meetings are informal and held at a local restaurant or faculty members home.  The conferences alternate between meetings that are primarily designed to cover fundamental EBM principles in conference and meetings that discuss landmark articles while still providing an opportunity to socialize with fellow residents.

Resident Case Conference:

During conference time, the residents co-present interesting cases they have seen with an assigned faculty member.  This conference is setup to allow significant resident-faculty interaction as they go through the presentation of a case and work through the initial management, diagnostic schema and treatment modalities.

EMS Base Station Course:

Parkland Hospital is the home of Biotel, the base station for the Metroplex. Residents attend a course, certifying them for performing online medical control.

Intern Conference

There is a blockly intern conference that addresses topics of particular interest to the interns.  This also serves as a time for the class to come together for a few hours, since many are spread out across the different services.  Topics include: Common ED Complaints, How to Use the Slit Lamp, How to Be More Efficient, etc.

Blockly Board Review

Each block, our faculty put together a session to help review the prior block's learning points that are likely to show up on board exams.  These are usually a mix of multiple choice questions in board style and visual stimuli questions.