Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice
Emergency rooms or ERs in hospitals attend to sudden illness and trauma caused by injury, accident, or seizure. Doctors proficient in emergency medicine assess and provide immediate treatment that can range from first aid, oxygen, IV fluids, blood transfusion, and other emergency care as the case may be. As an emergency medicine doctor, you can work in smaller trauma units or regional trauma networks. An emergency medicine doctor also works in disaster sites like hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, bridge collapse, or aircraft crash sites. They also provide relief medicine in war zones.
Emergency medicine – What happens in an ER
An emergency medicine doctor does not enjoy a typical day, unlike regular physicians. No two days are alike and most days will become adrenaline-gushing scenes within a few minutes. Emergency medicine is a round-the-clock service and there is no holiday for the unit. So doctors and nurses working in an ER work in shifts and have days off but not a typical weekend. However, it is an interesting branch and anyone considering to achieve mastery of emergency medicine concepts should try online MedTech platforms like Lecturio.
Emergency rooms are pivotal healthcare and apparently, a specialist in emergency medicine understands that their work will involve a high-pressure environment where they can be rescuing a patient with cardiac arrest or setting a fractured bone.
Emergency medicine aids in a vast range of clinical experience, unlike any other specialization. Prioritizing patients at the critical level and taking a decision requires astute levels of critical thinking in emergency rooms. It is the best platform to start a person’s clinical experience with the scope to subspecialize in emergency medicine in the following areas:
- Disaster medicine
- Emergency imaging and ultrasound
- Emergency prehospital
- Medical Toxicology
- Pediatric emergency medicine
- Sports medicine
- Critical care
Need for emergency medicine specialists
Conditions for urgent medical attention can arise anywhere and emergency room staff are essentially few of the first responders in case of one. Handling the critical care requirements during trauma, accident, or sudden mishaps affecting the health of patients who are brought into an ER, requires specialists who are trained to attend to the high pressure of such situations.
Emergency medicine doctors are gaining traction globally as specialists who can respond to urgent surgical and medical emergencies. The training for emergency medicine is a structured course designed for enrolled residents to specialize in handling emergency cases under a high-pressure environment. The instructors of emergency medicine give clinical instructions while preparing the doctors to handle the stress.
Patients from different age groups are brought into an emergency room either by ambulance, by self, or by a third party. Often the patient is in trauma because of a sudden event that will jostle their wits and their blood pressure will be erratic because of the ensuing fear. Emergency medicine physicians try to compose the patients while even attending to their critical needs like immediate structure, incisions, checking on a broken bone, giving CPR, and stabilizing a patient who suffered cardiac arrest. Using advanced technologies, most ER room doctors are trained to take care of patients who suffer cardiac or brain strokes or stabilize accident victims.
How to enroll in emergency medicine?
Applicants who have completed their med school program from an LCME-accredited school and cleared Steps 1 and 2 of the USMLE exam are eligible to apply to the residency program of emergency medicine in most hospitals. The requirements of most programs are standard and need the basics covered.
Emergency medicine in most hospitals is a three-year residency program. A resident is eligible to practice only upon completing the tenets of the program and clearing the final Step 3 of the USMLE licensure exam.
Based on individual programs, few may need their prospects to complete a fellow program in diagnostic radiology. Emergency medicine residents’ training encompasses acquiring large traction of clinical knowledge and procedural skills that are necessary to display one’s adroitness as an EM doctor. They treat patients from all stages of life undifferentiated by any demarcation.
After completing the residency program in Emergency medicine and clearing the licensure exams, a doctor can practice in any hospital or establish a self-employed clinical practice.
What do residency programs prepare an EM doctor for?
Most EM residency programs will aim to train the doctors to handle the following in the emergency rooms without hiccups:
- Aim to train doctors for competent emergency care as first responders of the case
- Compose the patients in the trauma and help them immediately after the initial assessment till a specialist arrives.
- Understand the emotional turmoil of patients and their families who are undergoing critical care or trauma.
- Set up a conducive environment that promotes a supportive environment for residents and instructors.
- Train ER doctors to deal with patients with empathy even in emergencies.
- Increase the number of available qualified ER doctors in the country or wherever the program outreach is.
- Stress on evidence-based diagnostic approach for treatment plans
- Support the interested candidates in pursuing academic roles to foster more ER doctors.
EM residency programs are under the guidance of a program director who is typically a well-rounded doctor with extensive experience. They prepare not just a workforce for the most critical arm in the healthcare segment, but help create lasting impressions as most patients who are ambulatory and otherwise healthy, may visit someone in an ER or get into one themselves for their health purpose.
Conclusion:
Emergency medicine with its subspecialization is required in handling patients who are brought in because of sudden accidents, injuries, strokes, disasters, and other mishaps. They specialize in stabilizing a patient as per the case and help in pain management during this stage of critical care.
Whether it is pain related to the inability to breathe oxygen by self, injury, burn, or any other sudden trauma that causes excruciating pain, ER doctors address the issue immediately while assessing the case. It is critical to stabilize and manage the pain of the patient within the first few minutes of bringing them in and then observe them for some time