Are EM docs thinkers, doers, both, or more of one than the other?

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Newyawk

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Basically wondering if EM is considered at all a mentally stimulating field

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Yesterday I found a leftover egg from a breakfast tray and put it in our standard turkey sandwich and warmed it up and gave it to a patient who refused to be discharged unless he got something "good" to eat.

Definitely a mentally stimulating field.
 
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Yesterday I found a leftover egg from a breakfast tray and put it in our standard turkey sandwich and warmed it up and gave it to a patient who refused to be discharged unless he got something "good" to eat.

Definitely a mentally stimulating field.
Hahaha... Forreal tho.
 
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Yesterday I found a leftover egg from a breakfast tray and put it in our standard turkey sandwich and warmed it up and gave it to a patient who refused to be discharged unless he got something "good" to eat.

Definitely a mentally stimulating field.

Thinking outside the box. An EM physician if I ever saw one.
 
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Basically wondering if EM is considered at all a mentally stimulating field
I will assume your question is genuine despite its air of trolling. What do you consider mentally stimulating? Sitting around discussing every tiny nuance of which antibiotic is ideal for a particular patient and a particular infection? Spending thirty minutes on rounds discussing the past medical history of a single patient? Sitting (LOL, standing, of course) in the OR for hours repairing a bowel perforation and other traumatic injuries from a GSW? Discussing the electrolyte abnormalities and designing the ideal composition of the dialysis solution a patient who didn't feel like going to his HD for the past two weeks requires? EM probably isn't for you.

Identifying the sick patient among all the sniffles and chronic pain patients? Getting the completely undifferentiated very ill patient and trying to simultaneously resuscitate them and determine why they are sick? Moving as many patients through the ED as quickly and safely as possible without missing any serious conditions? Then EM might be for you.

Every field has its intellectually stimulating aspects, and its mind-numbingly dull aspects. The real question is what is it you are looking for in medicine? What environment would make you want to go to work, not dread going to work? Something only you can answer and depends on what you are looking for.
 
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I will assume your question is genuine despite its air of trolling. What do you consider mentally stimulating? Sitting around discussing every tiny nuance of which antibiotic is ideal for a particular patient and a particular infection? Spending thirty minutes on rounds discussing the past medical history of a single patient? Sitting (LOL, standing, of course) in the OR for hours repairing a bowel perforation and other traumatic injuries from a GSW? Discussing the electrolyte abnormalities and designing the ideal composition of the dialysis solution a patient who didn't feel like going to his HD for the past two weeks requires? EM probably isn't for you.

Identifying the sick patient among all the sniffles and chronic pain patients? Getting the completely undifferentiated very ill patient and trying to simultaneously resuscitate them and determine why they are sick? Moving as many patients through the ED as quickly and safely as possible without missing any serious conditions? Then EM might be for you.

Every field has its intellectually stimulating aspects, and its mind-numbingly dull aspects. The real question is what is it you are looking for in medicine? What environment would make you want to go to work, not dread going to work? Something only you can answer and depends on what you are looking for.
Great post. Thank you
 
People who don't understand EM will immediately say it's a "doers" field. And it is. But it's as much a thinkers field. There's a tremendous amount to know, and you have to have it on instant recall. If you're not thinking, you can be right 99% of the time diagnosing all the easy common stuff, and miss the 1% of serious stuff, which is the only stuff that matters. If you go into EM thinking it's going to be easy on your brain, you're ****ed.

PS: Did a headstand on a paddle board today on the ocean.


And happy Father's day, Dads.
 
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Yesterday I had a really tough decision.

Pick up another pt or leave it for the next guy with 30 min left on my shift. We make hard decisions all day long.
 
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On shift tonight I thought about flying to Paris. After I got done with my shift I booked a plane ticket. I would classify that as a thinker and a do’er.
 
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If by doers you mean procedures, this is much more a thinkers profession. You have to shift your patient subtype nearly every patient. From the pregnant vag bleeder, to the septic 90 year old, to the mvc trauma, back to the 20 year old man cold. It requires a lot of constant focus switching and coming up with fast yet safe dispositions. It just becomes the norm so you don’t think about it much.
 
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On shift tonight I thought about flying to Paris. After I got done with my shift I booked a plane ticket.
Went there this year. Cool city. Interesting history. Beautiful architecture. Amazing museums. Great food. Glad it went. You'll have a great time. Bon voyage!
 
I went into EM because I found it to be one of the harder fields in terms of being mentally stimulating. But I like trying to solve the mystery of the diagnosis, not figure out the management. I don't find it interesting at all to manage a patient on a daily basis after the answer of what they have is given to me, so I found floor medicine and most subspecialties terribly boring. Someone diagnoses the patient with the disease, you already know what they have, you can look up exactly what to do with it, and consult a bunch of experts. That's boring. I love the undifferentiated patient. Trying to solve the mystery of the patients diagnosis, and sometimes when there is little time to do so and under immense pressure.

What's harder and more fun? Being Sherlock Holmes or being the policeman who books the suspect after Holmes solved the case?
 
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I went into EM because I found it to be one of the harder fields in terms of being mentally stimulating. But I like trying to solve the mystery of the diagnosis, not figure out the management. I don't find it interesting at all to manage a patient on a daily basis after the answer of what they have is given to me, so I found floor medicine and most subspecialties terribly boring. Someone diagnoses the patient with the disease, you already know what they have, you can look up exactly what to do with it, and consult a bunch of experts. That's boring. I love the undifferentiated patient. Trying to solve the mystery of the patients diagnosis, and sometimes when there is little time to do so and under immense pressure.

What's harder and more fun? Being Sherlock Holmes or being the policeman who books the suspect after Holmes solved the case?
Oh em gee this is me 100% i hate management
 
I went into EM because I found it to be one of the harder fields in terms of being mentally stimulating. But I like trying to solve the mystery of the diagnosis, not figure out the management. I don't find it interesting at all to manage a patient on a daily basis after the answer of what they have is given to me, so I found floor medicine and most subspecialties terribly boring. Someone diagnoses the patient with the disease, you already know what they have, you can look up exactly what to do with it, and consult a bunch of experts. That's boring. I love the undifferentiated patient. Trying to solve the mystery of the patients diagnosis, and sometimes when there is little time to do so and under immense pressure.

What's harder and more fun? Being Sherlock Holmes or being the policeman who books the suspect after Holmes solved the case?
This sounds a lot like radiology tbh.
 
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