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Emergency Medical Physician |
Career OverviewAn emergency medical physician is responsible for providing the required services for patients in the emergency room and prior to their arrival. Before the patient ever reaches the hospital the emergency medical physician is working with the emergency responders to obtain vital signs, get information on the injury or emergency situation, and instructing the EMTs, emergency medical technicians, on how to treat the patient.
With new equipment the emergency medical physician often receive information on the patient by radio, phone or by wireless transmission from the ambulance. The emergency medical physician is responsible for alerting any specialists needed, requesting any specialized medical equipment, and ensuring the patient is prioritized in the hospital emergency unit based on needs.
An emergency medical physician must be able to work under extreme amounts of pressure. They are required to make instantaneous life and death decisions, often without directly seeing the patient. As an emergency medical physician communication skills, problem solving and a complete and thorough understanding of medical procedures is required.
An excellent working relationship with staff and a compassionate and understanding mannerism with both patients and their families is very important. They must be able to diagnosis problems quickly and correctly and make recommendations for patient admissions or discharge based on the nature of the injury or illness.
An emergency medical physician usually a very high energy individual. He or she will be required to keep long hours and will constantly be on rotations, especially in larger or busier hospitals. The career is considered to be one of the most rewarding as well as stressful in the hospital workforce.
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Career RequirementsThe emergency medical physician must complete the same training as all physicians and that includes an undergraduate degree, four years of medical school and completion of all exams.
An emergency medical physician must then complete a three-year residency program and may also choose to specialize in a subspecialty area such as toxicology, pediatric emergency mediation or other medicine specialization.
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Job OutlookThe demand for emergency medical physicians will continue to increase at a rate above average for other doctors at least until the year 2014. The United States Department of Labor reports that hospitals have dramatically increased the number of patients been treated at emergency rooms but have not increased the number of emergency medical physicians accordingly.
This has left a gap between the number of emergency medical physicians available and the number of job vacancies available. The hectic pace of the emergency room and the stress of the working conditions contribute to the shortage of emergency medical physicians.
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Career TrackEmergency medical physicians have several options should they choose to move into another field. Many will move into management or supervisory positions within the ER, emergency room, whereas others may choose to move into other specialties or move into private practice. The broad experience that emergency medical physicians receive provides them excellent background for other areas of medicine.
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CompensationThe average salary for an emergency medical physician in the United States is between $178,000 and $224,000. Those emergency medical physicians in larger hospitals or those with more experience earn higher salaries than counterparts in smaller facilities or those just entering the field.
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