How to Become an Emergency Physician?

How to become an Emergency Physician – Overview

Emergency physicians mainly work in emergency departments or the “emergency room” (ER) of a healthcare facility.

Urgent Care crews in hospitals have an emergency physician in the team. Emergency doctors help to stabilize and treat patients who have suffered traumatic injuries or experiencing intense health issues.

Emergency physicians may release some patients after treatment, while others could be advised to get admitted to the hospital for further assessment. Emergency physicians work along these lines every day.

What does an Emergency Physician do?

An emergency physician diagnoses and treats patients in the emergency department (ER) of a healthcare facility. They specialize in treating any type of injury or illness.

These physicians are mainly focused on stabilizing patients as quickly as possible. These doctors are also tasked with deciding the next step in the course of treatment.

Emergency physicians are trained to diagnose and treat people of all ages, genders, etc. These physicians are trained to treat various ailments are different stages. These ailments may include diseases and medical conditions related to:

• Psychiatry
• Dermatology
• Gynecology
• Pregnancy
• Orthopedic
• Gastrointestinal
• Renal
• Pulmonary
• Cardiology
• Neurology

Emergency physicians are well-trained in reviving unconscious patients who have suffered a stroke or cardiac arrest and beginning treatment immediately.

These physicians are well-adept to handling multiple patients at a time. They are required to swiftly triage patients according to their symptoms.

Emergency room physicians give priority to treating patients suffering from immediately life-threatening conditions.

When patients in the emergency room require surgical treatment, then emergency physicians consult and advise the surgeon on the case.

Many times, people tend to confuse emergency room physicians with trauma surgeons, however, they are completely different professions.

How to Become an Emergency Physician?

After learning the basic responsibilities if you wish to become an emergency physician, then this is the education and training you would need to acquire:

Education to Become Emergency Physician

As a prospective emergency physician, you will need to attend a certified medical school for training. Once you graduate, you can enter the doctor’s residency and begin focusing on your chosen medical specialty, i.e. becoming an emergency physician.

This will require you to:

1. Complete average four years of medical school
2. Complete 3 or 4-year medical residency

Work Responsibilities of Emergency Physician

Once you have completed your education and training requirements, then you will need to seek employment at a healthcare facility. Here, you will be tasked with handling illnesses and medical problems, including:

• Ear infections
• Severe flu and colds
• Sore throat
• Migraine ache
• Rashes
• Minor injuries (burns, sprains, fractured bones, minor eye injuries, etc.)

To handle these ailments and offer the best-suited treatment, you may have to perform:

• Physical examinations (checking vital signs, examining ear, throat, nose, etc.)
• Patient consultation (discussing a patient’s symptoms)
• Diagnostic tests (complete blood count, chemistry profile, blood alcohol level, arterial blood gas and pregnancy tests)
• EKG
• Urinalysis
• Imaging tests (x-ray, MRI, CT scans, ultrasounds, etc.)

Conclusion

Being an emergency physician is extremely challenging yet very satisfying. This is especially true if you like daily challenges to help people.

The emergency physician’s profession is a high-stake, high-pressure career. Hence, if you are confident of handling yourself well under pressure, then you can choose to become an emergency physician.

Reference links:-

https://www.acep.org/patient-care/

https://apollomd.com/glossary/

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/

https://acem.org.au/Content-Sources/

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