"Are you going to stay in the emergency room?"

[GonnaBeADoc2222]

An interesting observation and perhaps this reflects on the general public's knowledge of what exactly emergency medicine is: even after 4 years of being a doc in the ED, family members and friends continue to ask me...

"Are you going to stay in the Emergency Room or will you specialize?"
"Are you going to open your own practice?"

To which I pleasantly offer my canned response of something like this:

"Emergency medicine is my career. It is it's own specialty and my residency training is in emergency medicine."

They seem to "get it" more after I explain a bit. Maybe this has to do more with EDs historically being manned by non-specialist docs until we got our own board and our own residencies? I never get offended by any of this; it's just an interesting pattern I've observed...

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[canigetawhatwhat]

Who cares?

 

[RustedFox]

They do that all the time to me, especially because I look young.

"They" also generally don't know what meds they take, and why.

Lolzburgers.

 

[deleted245139]

I like when they ask if I have my own practice and if I take my own patients. Haha it's nice of them.

 

[uhhhh]

As long as I get paid my EM salary, they can think whatever they want.