Emergency Medicine residency options within the EU

[VitaMedicus]

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Greetings,

I'm an almost graduated medical student from Finland. I've worked in the ambulance for a couple of years in the beginning of my studies and these past couple of summers that I worked in a hospital I grew really fond of the emergency department. Right now, a specialty for emergency care does not exist in our system, instead you have to be a specialist in either anesthesiology, internal medicine, surgery or pediatrics if you want to focus on the emergency side (and these doctors are almost invariably anesthesiologists). Since anesthesiology in its entirety doesn't appeal to me quite as much, I've been trying to map my other options. What I know for sure is that they are planning on integrating the emergency medicine specialty into our system in the near future, however, they don't have a specialization program for it yet.

I guess the safest bet would be to wait for them to be done with our own emergency medicine training program and apply then. However, as my graduation appears to be closer than I'd like to admit, this could mean quite a lot of time lost while waiting for it. So, my first plan (bold as it may be) would be to apply for an emergency medicine program in another EU country and hope that I will be able to apply for a matching job in my home country once I'm done. This far I have heard that there's supposed to be such a program in Sweden. Being our neighboring country and Swedish being our second official language (that I have studied extensively) this would be the obvious and easy option. However, as I am having a hard time finding any information about the Swedish program (if it even exists) it shouldn't hurt to look into other possible options within the European Union.

So, if you have any information regarding your country's emergency medicine training programs, please share. As for my proficiency in foreign languages, I'm fluent in English, have a strong basic knowledge of Swedish and German, and have lived for one year in Spain and should have the basics of Spanish to start building on. Many of these languages are a bit rusty after years of not using them, but shouldn't take too much effort to pick up again should the need arise.

I'm still mostly playing with the idea, but should I find a real, viable option I see no reason why I wouldn't seize the opportunity. Thanks for any information you can give me, it is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Sam

 

[Toennis]

the only place i know that has this is the UK. it´s called A&E there and a separate specialty. in most other countrys you´d have to obtain a board certification in internal medicine, surgery.... first.

 

[geen naam]

Flanders (dutch part of Belgium) has it, we got:

1. the way you described through anaesthesia, although it isn't limited to that, allmost all internal medicine/surgery disciplines are elegible aswell.
2. Emergency medicine which is a 6year residency consisting of
   • 36months of A&E (obligatory)
   • 12months of ICU (obligatory)
   • 6m internal medicine, 3m surgery, 3ortho, 6m anaesthesia, 3m peds, 3m gyno/obs (also obligatory but the months may vary slightly)
3. Acute medicine which is a 3year residency consisting of
   • 18months A&E (obligatory)
   • 18months which will be spend in anaesthesia, ICU, internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics
   • requirementof atleast one publication on emergency medicine
   **Be warned though that you probably will never become a senior attending with this one**

You will need to learn Dutch obviously, but as you already know german it really shouldn't be to hard as it's very familiar to german, just without the declensions.
And for years now there has been a shortage of A&E doctors/residents in Belgium so it shouldn't be hard to get in the program

A thing to consider is that like other European countries Belgium finally adopted the 48h-week for residents this year, however you can "voluntary" enlist for an extra 12h/week meaning you'll have a 60h week, depending on residency though that might get closer to 70hours/week in reality if you factor in administration. It's not to bad, but if you value free time very high then maybe neighboring countries were they are closer to the 48h week might be more interesting to you.

 

[VitaMedicus]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I'm still interested in knowing if there are similar programs in other European countries, so if you know about your own country's system, please let me know 🙂 (you can also send me a private message if that's what you prefer).