Hyperbarics

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Has anyone looked into supplementing your EM career with hyperbarics? Any idea what it pays?

It seems like a potential "side job" while you're pulling shifts in the ED... but I can't seem to find any opinions.

 

[BADMD]

Has anyone looked into supplementing your EM career with hyperbarics? Any idea what it pays?

It seems like a potential "side job" while you're pulling shifts in the ED... but I can't seem to find any opinions.

I did hyperbarics for a year. Look carefully at the pay structure and what you are expected to do. I got paid on a you-eat-what-you-kill basis and I didn't kill that much. I got lots of phone calls at nights from EDs that just wanted to "run it by" me so that they could document they discussed it. Even when I spent the few days diving wound care patients and a one night diving a family for CO, I still made way less than working a single shift in the ED.

Even though the chamber was less than a 1000 ft from the ED and on the same level, if there was a problem in the chamber, during an average shift, it would not have been feasible to break away and deal with it. After getting kind of screwed once (had to dive a patient after working a shift in the ED), I stopped taking call on days that I was schedule to work. Then it really became a PITA to be on call. Then they closed the practice pathway, basically removing any incentive I had to keep doing it.

You'll need to get credentialed to do it. The course I took would have been 1-2K if it hadn't been covered by in kind stuff from my department to another department.

All in all, it wasn't worth it to me. I'd rather just work an extra shift.