Fellow
Resuscitation and Emergency Critical Care (RECC) one-year fellowships are designed to focus on the management of the undifferentiated, critically ill patient from the time of arrival to time of disposition. Programs have a common curriculum featuring didactics, clinical experiences, and additional intensive care unit (ICU) time. The specific time allotted to each experience may vary slightly between institutions. RECC programs are unified by the RECC Council, which features leaders from each program to help standardize the curriculum and ensure quality. RECC is also represented nationally by the SAEM Fellowship Approval Committee.
Key Considerations
- Salary: salary ranges depending on local factors and is program-dependent.
- Moonlighting: while the focus is on completion of this fellowship, moonlighting is allowed so long as it does not interfere with fellowship responsibilities.
- Work Hours: all RECC programs feature clinical duties working in the emergency department critical care (EDCC) as the RECC fellow. This will account for the majority of the fellowship experience. Additionally, fellows are required to complete a certain number of hours in the role of Emergency Medicine Attending, though the specific number of hours varies by program. On average, RECC fellows work 3.5 shifts (24-30 hours) in the EDCC as a fellow, and 2 shifts per week as an EM Attending. RECC fellows function in the fellow role when working off-service in the ICU setting.
- Fellow Roles and Responsibilities: RECC fellows working in the EDCC function as the unit leader, directly overseeing the management of all critically ill patients, critical procedures, and active resuscitations. RECC fellows also perform critical procedures beyond the scope of traditional EM residency (midline catheter insertion, bronchoscopy, transesophageal echocardiography, ECMO-assisted CPR, etc.). RECC fellows spend 2-4 months rotating through the adult ICUs where they are expected to function at the level of the critical care fellow. ICU rotations often include cardiovascular, medical, neuroscience, and surgical. These experiences are intended to better inform the RECC fellow of longitudinal critical care to better anticipate the needs of the critically ill ED patient.
- Electives: All RECC fellowships feature elective time. This time should be used to further develop the fellow's interests, or to address areas of weakness. Common electives include research, cardiac anesthesia, outside institution ED-ICU or ICU time, and palliative care.
- Research Requirements: All RECC programs have an academic output requirement, though the details vary by institution.
Insider Advice
"A fellowship in RECC is a rewarding experience and a great jumpstart to creating the career you want in emergency critical care. Having gone through the fellowship myself, it is a special time of learning and development as a physician. It is one year dedicated solely to pursuing your academic interests, learning how to take care of the sick patient with the most up-to-date evidence and resuscitation techniques, and repeated exposure to critically ill patients. Fellows come out of the fellowship confident and well-trained. Being a relatively new field, the career possibilities afterwards are endless. I went on to help establish a fellowship at my hospital, and have a rewarding career training fellows and residents, with a wonderful work/life balance. Our fellowship graduates have gone on to establish their own paths - from becoming RECC Directors at their hospitals, core faculty developing resident curriculums, lecturing publicly, or in the community elevating the culture of critical care in their departments."
-Christina Lu, MD
