Disaster medicine questions

[Wboyc]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello everyone, out of curiosity can anyone give me some information on disaster medicine? I've done research on it but haven't found much. Is it a good fellowship for emergency medicine? How does the schedule work for a disaster medicine specialist? How much and how are they paid? Thanks for everyone's time.

 

[deleted109597]

Is it good? If it's what you want to do, sure. It's a niche.
Schedule? You work in an ED until a disaster happens. Then you have to get the rest of the guys to cover your shifts while you jaunt off to Haiti, or Nepal, or wherever.
You might get paid by whatever agency is doing the disaster response. MSF, etc. You might be volunteering, if you're part of the DMAT. You might be paid pretty well to go off to Liberia and help with Ebola coverage. It all depends on who is paying. Generally, it is low to zero pay. You do get the chance to travel to recently devastated countries and expose yourself to various nasty organisms though, so it's not all bad.

 

[Birdstrike]

You do get the chance to travel to recently devastated countries and expose yourself to various nasty organisms though, so it's not all bad.

Lol

 

[DarkHorse22]

yea I just took an BDLS and ADLS course and agree with above. It is generally something you do because you enjoy the work etc, not for financial reasons. definitely a niche. interesting field if that is what you are into, but not practical financially. as posted above, you are also putting yourself into invariably dangerous situations.

 

[alpinism]

Yep. That's disaster med in a nutshell. Unpredictable schedule, low or no pay, lots of travel, sometimes dangerous situations...

What's not to love 😉

 

[CajunMedic]

You might be volunteering, if you're part of the DMAT. You might be paid pretty well to go off to Liberia and help with Ebola coverage. It all depends on who is paying. Generally, it is low to zero pay. You do get the chance to travel to recently devastated countries and expose yourself to various nasty organisms though, so it's not all bad.

We actually get paid on a DMAT, but it's on a government pay scale, Not sure what GS level physicians get paid at. I'm at GS-7 as a logistics guy. Deployments are for 2 weeks, with an option to extend. Some of our team deployed to Haiti, we thought some were going to Nepal. Occasionally, they'll call for staff for National Special Security Events: Inauguration, DNC/RNC, etc. NDMS has been broke for a while, we're just starting to be able to pay for trips to the Center for Domestic Preparedness in AL and pay people to be there, primarily for the "DMAT fundamentals course". Anymore, it takes at least a year to get hired on, even as bad as we are hurting for medical staff.

 

[MSmentor018]

i believe my last check said gs-12

 

[UMass Disaster Medicine]

Hi - I am new to the student doctor forums. One of the medical students just told me about it. I am the fellowship director for the UMass Disaster Medicine fellowship. I am more than happy to give some input on this topic. Send me a message and we can connect. Here's our website (yes, this is me putting a DIY website together)

http://www.umassdisastermedicinefellowship.com

Thanks,
Andrew

ps: I may be biased here, but disaster medicine fellowships are the best EM fellowships to do!