We are Emergency Medicine Specialists
We are Emergency Medicine Specialists
As a third year resident in emergency medicine, it is now time for me to start looking for a job. It is apparently also time for me to be inundated with unsolicited mail, e-mails and phone calls from people who are trying to "place" me in a job or recruit me for some "great" opportunity. Honestly, I do not read all of the mail that I get from these individuals or organizations; however, I did receive one last week that caught my eye. It was a specific paragraph in this letter that drew my attention. The paragraph read as follows:
"Family Practice or Internal Medicine trained physicians have the breadth of training necessary to function in an emergency department, along with the people skills necessary to "get along" with patients, hospital staff and attending physicians."
Protective as I am of our specialty, I was at first upset that a group who staffs a very large number of emergency departments in the United States would send out this letter. This letter was, purportedly, soliciting residents to help fill emergency departments because, by their report, the number of residents graduating from emergency medicine programs is "not adequate to staff all of the nation's emergency departments."
Besides the fact that it offended me that this corporation sent this letter to me, a current emergency medicine resident, the letter worried me (and should worry you) for other reasons. The idea that a graduate of a non-emergency medicine residency program is as well prepared or trained as a graduate of an emergency medicine residency program is contradictory to the very existence of our specialty. Additionally, this idea has dangerous implications for the future.
One would assume that specialty trained physicians, in general, make more than their non-specialized counter-parts. If non-specialty trained physicians are allowed to practice en masse in emergency departments, it is not a stretch to say that they would be paid less. This would be, and is, very attractive to many management groups. It is also not a stretch that many management groups would be ecstatic to be able to hire, on the cheap, doctors to staff their emergency departments. If this is allowed to take place, the specialty becomes secondary to the bottom line, and most importantly, patient care suffers.
We are the ones trained to work in a fast paced and pressure-filled environment. Once we have graduated from an emergency medicine residency, we have earned the right to work in these environments. We have proven our ability to provide the highest level of patient care under some of the most physically and mentally rigorous circumstances in the practice of medicine. This is what emergency physicians do. To allow others to fill this role severely jeopardizes patient care.
It is for precisely this reason that we must act united as a specialty through joining and becoming active in groups such as AAEM or AAEM/RSA. I do not know about you, but I certainly would not want a podiatrist to take out my appendix…unless I was on a desert island…and even then I am not sure. Luckily, I live in North Carolina, and not on a desert island, and I should have the choice to have the appropriate specialist take care of me.
As a third year resident in emergency medicine, it is now time for me to start looking for a job. It is apparently also time for me to be inundated with unsolicited mail, e-mails and phone calls from people who are trying to "place" me in a job or recruit me for some "great" opportunity. Honestly, I do not read all of the mail that I get from these individuals or organizations; however, I did receive one last week that caught my eye. It was a specific paragraph in this letter that drew my attention. The paragraph read as follows:
"Family Practice or Internal Medicine trained physicians have the breadth of training necessary to function in an emergency department, along with the people skills necessary to "get along" with patients, hospital staff and attending physicians."
Protective as I am of our specialty, I was at first upset that a group who staffs a very large number of emergency departments in the United States would send out this letter. This letter was, purportedly, soliciting residents to help fill emergency departments because, by their report, the number of residents graduating from emergency medicine programs is "not adequate to staff all of the nation's emergency departments."
Besides the fact that it offended me that this corporation sent this letter to me, a current emergency medicine resident, the letter worried me (and should worry you) for other reasons. The idea that a graduate of a non-emergency medicine residency program is as well prepared or trained as a graduate of an emergency medicine residency program is contradictory to the very existence of our specialty. Additionally, this idea has dangerous implications for the future.
One would assume that specialty trained physicians, in general, make more than their non-specialized counter-parts. If non-specialty trained physicians are allowed to practice en masse in emergency departments, it is not a stretch to say that they would be paid less. This would be, and is, very attractive to many management groups. It is also not a stretch that many management groups would be ecstatic to be able to hire, on the cheap, doctors to staff their emergency departments. If this is allowed to take place, the specialty becomes secondary to the bottom line, and most importantly, patient care suffers.
We are the ones trained to work in a fast paced and pressure-filled environment. Once we have graduated from an emergency medicine residency, we have earned the right to work in these environments. We have proven our ability to provide the highest level of patient care under some of the most physically and mentally rigorous circumstances in the practice of medicine. This is what emergency physicians do. To allow others to fill this role severely jeopardizes patient care.
It is for precisely this reason that we must act united as a specialty through joining and becoming active in groups such as AAEM or AAEM/RSA. I do not know about you, but I certainly would not want a podiatrist to take out my appendix…unless I was on a desert island…and even then I am not sure. Luckily, I live in North Carolina, and not on a desert island, and I should have the choice to have the appropriate specialist take care of me.
