An emergency medicine physician treats patients who have serious medical problems that require immediate attention in order to save their lives or prevent further complications. This medical specialty is frequently found in hospital settings such as emergency rooms and intensive care units. Physicians can also work for ambulatory clinics, urgent care clinics, and companies that provide transportation for patients with acute medical problems; for example, they may fly on medical evacuation flights or travel with search-and-rescue teams to provide immediate assistance.
This medical specialty necessitates medical school followed an emergency medicine residency. A combination of skills, patience, and the ability to keep a cool head under pressure are required of an emergency medicine physician. Rapidly assessing patients to determine immediate medical needs, triaging patients in mass trauma situations to determine which will benefit the most from medical care, and providing rapid interventions to patients in acute medical distress, such as patients in anaphylactic shock, are all part of an emergency medicine physician’s practice.
An emergency medicine physician’s goal is to stabilize a patient so that she can be treated other medical professionals. Many consult with specialists such as orthopedic surgeons and neurologists as soon as they meet with a patient so that they can properly evaluate them and develop a long-term care plan. Having a plan in place allows doctors to take steps to prepare at every stage of a patient’s medical care, allowing them to be proactive rather than reactive.
This work can be extremely demanding. Depending on the needs of the community, an emergency medicine physician may work late night shifts or at odd hours. Physicians frequently deal with patient deaths, meeting with family members to discuss deaths or serious medical situations such as comas, and providing support and assistance to nurses, paramedics, and other health care personnel in emergency rooms, which can be high-stress environments. Burnout is common among emergency medicine doctors, and many hospitals have programs in place to spot warning signs and treat it quickly.
Emergency medicine physicians are desperately needed the military to manage battlefield hospitals and stabilize patients for treatment at advanced medical facilities. Doctors interested in cutting-edge research in this field should consider military service, as it will give them access to significant emergency medicine research and development. It may also be associated with high levels of stress, as battlefield medicine is notoriously traumatic.