Expectations of an Emergency Medicine Clerkship Director

The clerkship director (CD) serves as a faculty leader within a school of medicine and plays a vital role in the hierarchy of undergraduate medical education. Collectively, CDs across specialties serve a multitude of roles and are responsible for clerkship administration, curricular development, teaching, mentoring, and advising students. The emergency medicine (EM) CD has a vitally important role to play in the future development of medical students. EM CDs should be valued and supported, because they often represent our specialty within the medical school and play a vital role in training the physicians of tomorrow. Opportunities and resources must be made available to CDs to run and maintain a successful EM clerkship, while also balancing their clinical duties and academic endeavors. In addition, EM CDs need support from their respective medical schools and departments to run highly successful medical student rotations. This article was prepared with the objective of establishing the importance of the EM CD, defining the job description of the CD, explaining the importance of adequate release time to perform the role of the CD, and describing the necessary resources and support for the position. With EM becoming an increasingly popular and integral rotation for medical students, it is likely that additional emphasis will be placed on the role of the EM CD. This reference document serves as a template for the job description and expectations of an EM CD. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2011; 18:513-518 (C) 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine