This rotation offers students the opportunity to accelerate their learning by spending a four week block in the intensive care unit. The rotation provides the student the opportunity to diagnose and treat of a wide range of clinical conditions common among critically ill patients. Students will enhance their knowledge and skill in caring for the sickest patients in the hospital. The clinical sites utilized for the Advanced Trauma and Surgery Critical Care are the ICUs at Bronson Hospital and Ascension Borgess Hospital. Students will be paired with interns and residents, and will participate in the ICU in a dedicated fashion; the intent is for students to function as a "subintern" and will result in a high level learning experience.

Students will be expected to participate on rounds, will continue to perfect the gathering and synthesis of data, and expand on their ability to make diagnoses and develop care plans. The student will be expected to gather a history based upon interview of patients/families, evaluate laboratory and radiographic material, and generate differential diagnoses and management plans. They will also be expected to improve their documentation skills by writing patient notes in the electronic medical record.

The advanced trauma and critical care surgery rotation is designed for students who are interested in a general surgery or other surgery subspecialty residency. They will manage patients as independently as possible with oversight from the general surgery senior resident on service and an attending surgeon. They will be assigned to the trauma/critical care surgery service at either Borgess or Bronson. Assistance with teaching 3rd year students will also be expected. They will gain operative experience as well as have increased responsibilities managing patients in the inpatient critical care and trauma bay settings. They will be assigned a faculty mentor/preceptor at their assigned hospital.