[The Ulm emergency medicine training course. 1: Concept]

The course in emergency medicine was introduced by the German Federal Government to meet the requirements of the curriculum of the 4th year of medical education in 1992. The Department of Anaesthesiology of the University Hospital Ulm drew up a course consisting of one week of practical instructions (Table 3) for groups of 24 students, case presentation and accompanying lectures that cover the topics of emergency medicine (Table 2). The course is part of continuous education in emergency medicine. It starts with courses in "first aid" and "first medical attendance to emergencies" followed by the "course"in emergency medicine" and further training weeks on the "mobile intensive care unit (MICU)" during the "internship" as well as a course on emergency medicine for ambulance doctors and the training on he job by an emergency physician during residency (Table 1). The aim of the course is training competence (psychomotoric skills and clinical competence) for the primary care of life-threatening emergencies. The following educational methods were included in the concept: problem oriented learning, situation-oriented learning, learning by doing (cognitive apprenticeship).