"Is there a doctor anywhere?!"

[twintiger32]

What comes to the mind of an ophthalmologist when he/she hears the words in the title?

Ophthalmology is great. I love how it is so focused, and how there is so much knowledge out there to preserve vision. However, it's my natural instinct to want to help in emergency situations, and was wondering how all you docs deal with these situations. Are you the first to rush to the scene and rely on your med school/medicine internship training? Or do you let the other docs answer the call (general surgeons, ER docs, internists)?

Just curious what things are like in the real world...ideally I'd want to be an Ophthalmolgist with knowledge of the whole body...what's it like for you?

Let me know what you think...

Sam

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[shiro1]

The answer you get is probably different for different people. I will tell you this, several years out of residency and many years since medical school I haven't had ACLS certification for 8 years. BLS hasn't been reviewed for 9 years. I don't know if anyone at an accident scene would want me to do anything other than call 911.

My husband's going into emergency medicine because he didn't like the low acuity of primary care and wanted to be the kind of guy you want in a disaster like hurricaine Katrina, 9/11 etc. You can learn a lot about ophthalmology and basic eye care. The EM physicians I work with are very good. They will get vision, pupil exam, EOM, look at corneas, take IOP, look at the slit lamp, look at their fundus and most of the time don't bother me with simple corneal abrasions, conjunctivitis, iritis, etc., but just arrange for follow up with me the next day. Sounds to me you may want to evaluate carefully what you really want for your career before you take the plunge, so to speak.