I am going to be a senior in high school this fall, and I hope to start apply to colleges as soon as possible. However, I am having trouble deciding on what I want to do. I currently volunteer as an EMT and I absolutely love it. I was planning on pursuing more of a research type of career in college, but then I responded to a very serious accident (ejection, and double entrapment) which completely changed my plans. Something clicked in me and I automatically knew that trauma care was for me, and I was set to be a doctor when I realized that I can't keep up my EMS career if I became a doctor-so now I am wondering about nursing. Is it true that can't continue in EMS and be a doctor? And if so, are there options for doctors out in the field? Lastly, could someone give me an in the ER doctors vs. nurses kind of explanation? I know I've asked a lot, but I'm so confused. Thank you so much to anyone that can help 🙂
In Desperate Need of Help
- Thread starter EMT93
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As a doctor you can be involved in EMS but it is unlikely that your primary work will be riding in an ambulance and treating and transporting patients on the street.
There are a number of ways to be involved in EMS as a physician. You can be a medical director for an EMS agency. You can do a lot with EMS education. Either of these can be fun and rewarding but both are primarily administrative and less about going on calls.
Nursing has more opportunity for doing field work such as flight nursing and MICN (Mobile Intensive Care Nurse) units but these are limited, niche nursing jobs and require a lot of experience in regular nursing to get. Nursing does not afford as much opportunity to be a medical director for various agencies.
You mention being attracted to "trauma care" and you asked about doctors in the ER. It's very important to understand that trauma surgery and emergency medicine are very different fields. Emergency physicians see the trauma patients in the ER and stabilize them in conjunction with trauma surgeons who then take the patients to the OR in necessary. The trauma surgeons then care for the patients for the rest of their hospital stays which are often long. Most people who are "trauma junkies" wind up not going into emergency med as trauma is a small part of EM. They also tend to bail out of trauma surgery once they realize that the chaotic initial trauma work up and surgery is followed by weeks of more mundane hospital medicine.
There are a number of ways to be involved in EMS as a physician. You can be a medical director for an EMS agency. You can do a lot with EMS education. Either of these can be fun and rewarding but both are primarily administrative and less about going on calls.
Nursing has more opportunity for doing field work such as flight nursing and MICN (Mobile Intensive Care Nurse) units but these are limited, niche nursing jobs and require a lot of experience in regular nursing to get. Nursing does not afford as much opportunity to be a medical director for various agencies.
You mention being attracted to "trauma care" and you asked about doctors in the ER. It's very important to understand that trauma surgery and emergency medicine are very different fields. Emergency physicians see the trauma patients in the ER and stabilize them in conjunction with trauma surgeons who then take the patients to the OR in necessary. The trauma surgeons then care for the patients for the rest of their hospital stays which are often long. Most people who are "trauma junkies" wind up not going into emergency med as trauma is a small part of EM. They also tend to bail out of trauma surgery once they realize that the chaotic initial trauma work up and surgery is followed by weeks of more mundane hospital medicine.
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you can always try trauma surg... shadow it and see if you like it. I rather did, as it was exciting and always fascinating. To me, at least, it seems like the logical conclusion of your interests.
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