Emergency medicine is a globally demanding and attractive discipline in medical school that provides medical students with the clinical skills and also broad medical knowledge necessary to offer acute and life-saving procedures. Below is an informative article about what is emergency medicine and emergency medicine doctors’ job scope.
What is an emergency physician?
Emergency physicians, called ER, are physicians trained to treat patients with acute health problems and traumas. Emergency medicine as an area of study provides medical students with a detailed understanding of pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency care, and after earning their medical school degrees in emergency medicine, become specialists in life-threatening conditions, acute illnesses, and pain medicine. A part of the patients dealing with emergent conditions would be treated in emergency rooms by emergency medicine physicians while the rest dealing with severe injuries often must be referred to hospitals and medical clinics. Emergency physicians can decide whether the treatment plan for the patient should be done in the emergency room or is better addressed in a fully equipped hospital.
What do ER doctors do?
ER doctors provide healthcare to multiple patients coming into the emergency rooms, regardless of their ailments, ages, or genders. They are able to treat tens of diseases in various medical disciplines such as neurology, cardiology, gynecology, and orthopedics. They may need to do the quick triage of patients who are having a heart attack or internal bleeding. During these kinds of critical situations, emergency medicine physicians must act as quickly as they can to stabilize patients and decide the appropriate treatment. And if the needed treatments are out of their abilities, emergency medicine doctors must refer the patients to related specialists. They mainly work in hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers. Yet, the career opportunities vary a lot in emergency medicine. Check out Doctor Jobs Today to see other job openings.
Can an ER doctor perform major surgery?
Emergency physicians generally do not perform surgery. Their job is to stabilize patients and provide patients with emergency care. The surgery that would be performed by an ER physician must be minimally-invasive. Emergency medicine doctors may offer simple procedures such as fracture reduction, or a bit more complicated chest tube placement and equivalents in case of an emergency. Yet, for major surgery, the patient needs to be admitted to the hospital or referred to a related specialist.
When to see an ER physician?
In cases like car accidents or severe injuries patients would involuntarily be moved to emergency rooms. Yet, there are also situations in which patients must deliberately see an emergency physician such as:
- continuous bleeding,
- breathing difficulties,
- chest pains,
- persistent coughing,
- fainting,
- the feeling of weakness continuously,
- abdominal pressure,
- changes in mind,
- dizziness,
- migraine,
- severe stomach ache, etc.
It is highly recommended to have emergency room visits for patients dealing with even one of the listed health conditions.
So, where to find an ER doctor?
ER physicians mainly work in emergency rooms. Yet, patients who are not able to have an emergency room visit or do not wish to have one can also find an emergency physician in urgent care facilities. You may want to check out other job opportunities in emergency medicine to see more ER physician working areas.
What is an Urgent Care Facility?
An urgent care facility is a walk-in clinic that provides medical care for common diseases and minor injuries outside of the emergency departments of hospitals. Urgent care facilities also offer treatments for patients with not life-threatening but still severe conditions such as ear infections, sore throat, bronchitis, migraines, pink eye, minor cuts, or burns. In facilities, patients can also have several check-ups like well-baby checks, drug screening, physicals for school enrollments or sports licenses, etc. Besides, an urgent care facility may offer several laboratory services for better diagnoses of ailments. Common lab tests that can be done by those facilities are blood tests, STDs, pregnancy tests, urinalysis, PT/INR, fecal blood occult, and Covid-19 tests.
What are the types of conditions treated in urgent care facilities?
Urgent care facilities offer medical attention for conditions such as:
- colds,
- sore throats,
- infections,
- muscle strain,
- diarrhea,
- sprains, or equivalents.
What is the difference between emergency departments and urgent care facilities?
While many consider emergency care is exactly the same as urgent care while there are several differences. To start with, the severity of conditions treated in the ER is generally higher. Emergency medicine physicians provide health care to patients of all ages with life-threatening conditions. Yet, practitioners working in urgent care facilities look for minor illnesses and injuries. Especially, patients having symptoms of critical health conditions such as a heart attack or a stroke, need to go to an emergency room.
Besides, the working hours vary between an emergency department and an urgent care facility. ER offers emergency care 24/7 with ER physicians, physician assistants, and nurses. In emergency departments, patients can receive healthcare in neurology, cardiology, orthopedics, or baby check-ups. While urgent care facilities also include emergency physicians, assistants, and nurses, there is limited access to laboratory services compared to emergency departments.
What is emergency medicine residency like?
Emergency medicine residency in Malaysia would last approximately 13 years in total. Each person who wants to become a doctor in the country must have approximately 9 years of medical school training.
Medical students need to start with getting their bachelor’s degree in medical school which lasts 5 years. After completing MBBS, they would get 2 years of housemanship which leads them to gain clinical skills, a bit of medical experience, and learn comprehensively about various medical disciplines and theories. Besides, physicians can be fully registered with Malaysia Medical Council as medical officers. Then, they need to have compulsory training in a public hospital for 2 years.
To become an ER doctor, physicians must have a medical school master’s program in emergency medicine that would last 4 years. Medical students wishing to be emergency medicine physicians can attend universities’ master’s programs. A couple of medical schools with emergency medicine master’s programs are the University of Malaya, the University of Warwick, and the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Medical school’s master’s program in emergency medicine aims to equip students with the required technical skills, attitude, maturity, and core values to become an ER in Malaysia.
What is the ideal mindset for an aspiring emergency medicine physician?
The emergency room is a chaotic medical department, and working in emergency medicine requires a distinct organizational and work plan oriented mindset. Emergency medicine doctors must follow several steps to diagnose and treat patients. Initially, emergency medicine physicians must decide whether the patient is a quick triage patient or able to wait. After coming to the right decision, ER physicians need to act quickly to stabilize patients who need immediate action.
Also, there are always new patients, and to protect the balance in the emergency department, ER physicians must manage the patients in order and deliver healthcare accordingly. Even when a patient is physically and mentally ready to leave the clinic and go home-resting, the early decision of the ER physicians would be useful in identifying these cases and circulating these details in the ER.
In emergency medicine, practitioners need to prioritize the worst-case scenarios when trying to diagnose patients with acute illnesses. They should opt for milder options by eliminating the unseen symptoms. With this screening method, applied by emergency physicians, the small details would not be overlooked and the precision of diagnoses would be higher. Moreover, being able to use time efficiently is one of the requirements of emergency medicine. An ER physician would be able to decide which patient needs what with some promptness and a bit of foresight with a little working experience. Stronger time management leads more patients to be treated at a certain period of time.
Importantly, as an emergency medicine physician working for patients with life-threatening conditions, you must be aware and ready for action anytime when on duty. Because even one small moment of carelessness or an inappropriate intervention can lead to the death of a patient.
Must-have skills for ER doctors
To become an emergency medicine doctor, you need to have outstanding medical knowledge and various personal traits. Here is the most popular skills to have as an ER physician:
Multitasking
As an ER physician, you would need to handle a variety of medical cases with different treatment requirements. It is super important for emergency medicine physicians to be able to manage multiple patients at the same time.
Ability to handle heavy pressure
Dealing with multiple patients daily is one of the ER physician’s duties. Because there can be a lot of quick triage patients, ER physicians must stay calm and offer treatments as quickly as they can. They need to keep their concentration high to provide ER procedures. In addition, emergency physicians may also need to treat patients with non-urgent conditions.
Promptness in diagnosing and solving the problem
Emergency physicians are mainly required to have broad clinical skills and medical knowledge to treat and stabilize patients and provide them with emergency care. As an ER physician, you should be able to think and act quickly to diagnose a problem. Thus, promptness is a super important skill for ER physicians. They often need to suggest procedures for patients with life-threatening conditions.
An emergency medicine physician must be able to diagnose the problem real quick and start to apply the treatment before the situation gets worse. For example, if one of your patients is complaining of a severe stomachache, you need to consider a variety of reasons such as appendicitis, stomach flu, celiac disease, or ulcer. After detecting the ailment, an ER physician must either start to apply treatment in the emergency room or make a referral for the patient to a related specialist.
Communication Skills
Effective communication in emergency medicine is important to provide safe and appropriate patient care. ER doctors with higher communication skills can better understand the complaints and the challenges of the patients, which would be useful for ER physicians to diagnose and treat patients.
Composure
Having a high level of composure as an emergency medicine doctor, you would be able to communicate both with the team and the patient clearly. Besides, with composure, you would not feel uncomfortable dealing with patients having severe and traumatic injuries.
Teamwork
Better teamwork in emergency medicine leads to higher patient and physician satisfaction levels. Also with efficient teamwork, the rate of clinical errors would reduce steadily which would improve the quality of healthcare and patient safety.
Attention to detail
It is important for ER doctors to work detailed and thoroughly as well as act quickly. Observing and attending to details is especially beneficial to diagnosing the problem of new patients and deciding the treatment in line with the patient’s physical and mental health. In addition, professionals consider that paying attention to details in emergency medicine might save lives.
Lastly, what are some career opportunities for ER doctors?
Emergency medicine plays an important role in the healthcare industry, and ER physicians have various job opportunities. ER physicians mainly work in urgent care facilities, emergency departments of hospitals, or the emergency rooms of medical clinics. ER physicians often work long hours in stressful environments because they provide life-saving procedures.
Emergency medicine is a wide term including several medical school subspecialties such as pediatric emergency, trauma, toxicology, critical care, and pre-hospital emergency medicine called PHC. Thus, an emergency physician can also choose to specialize in a pediatric emergency or in PHC.
The pediatric emergency is a subspecialty of both pediatrics and emergency medicine that involves providing emergency care for children. A pediatric ER physician is a medical specialist focusing on the care of children. Pediatric emergency physicians are trained to treat various health conditions that need immediate care. Here are the common diseases in pediatric emergencies:
- Dehydration
- Respiratory distress
- Seizures
- Trauma
- Anxiety
- Anaphylaxis
- High fever
- Overdoses
- Cuts
- Animal bites
- Poisonings
- Allergies
On the other hand, pre-hospital emergency medicine is also a medical school specialty focusing on the care of acute triage patients. Pre-hospital care refers to immediate patient care during the path to the hospital. The procedures of pre-hospital emergency care can range from first-aid to even advanced medical care. Practitioners working in pre-hospital emergency medicine must be ready to have isolated working conditions. There may be a lot of environmental challenges and limitations. Thus, physicians wishing to continue as pre-hospital emergency doctors need to consider the pros and cons in detail.
To observe more about the working conditions of emergency medicine physicians, it would be beneficial to have a look at ER doctor job vacancies.
Are you a General Practitioner, Aesthetic Physician, or ER Doctor looking for a new role in the healthcare industry? Here at Doctor Jobs Today, we provide the most reliable and well-curated vacancies from the best medical institutions in Malaysia. You can also access various recommendations and guidelines to help you stay on track. Get your CV ready and find your future career in Doctor Jobs Today, now!
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If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also appreciate our courses on Rapid Response in Emergency Room: Mastering adult resuscitation, paediatric care and stroke management and Emergency Medicine: Specifics part 1, which delve into similar subjects.
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