Questions about the FP route to EM

[double elle]

Hi everyone.
I am wondering if anyone out there can give me some insight into the FP route to EM. I've done some searches and MANY of the jobs I have found for ER say they are looking for an ER doc or an FP and they may/may not list the hourly wage.

1. I will never live in a big city. Probably about 50-60K will be the population max.

2. I am considering this because of geographic locations of the residency programs of EM vs FP.

3. Is it smart to do this with regards to..if burnout occurs, then I always have my FP license to fall back on if I just want to get a boring ol' 9-5? (haha)

ANY information about this would be helpful. I don't know anyone who has done this...I just keep getting told that it's done all the time. Also, any females out there - I would really appreciate your input if you have any info on this...as I have a 1-year old and need to figure in the family factor.
thanks

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[upitt]

If you are a b/c fp physician you will never get hired to work in the ED in a big city. In a small town you will be able to work in the ED because those hospitals have a difficult time of hiring em physicians. 1) em physicians want more money, 2) very few b/c em physicians want to work in a small town.

I am not sure how long this wil be allowed but for now you can be a primary care physician during the day and then for more money pick up a few shifts in the ED.

btw, b/c means board certified = completing residency & usmle 3

 

[Pepe]

double elle,
I know of a hospital in a fairly large city ~100K that has an ER entirely staffed by FP physicians. I would agree with UPITT in that in larger cities it might be harder to come by but I wouldn't say it was impossible. Additionally as a rule, I've seen that in cities where there is an unoppossed FP program, there are more FP working in the ER full time. In cities with major medical training programs your chances will be less. You CAN work as a full time ER physician as a FP, but there will most likely be a ceiling on how far up you can go.

 

[secretwave101]

Even if the rules allowing FP's to work in ER's don't change, competition for ER jobs will probably continue to increase. ER docs can't do anything else, so the only place they will look for jobs is in ED's, and places like Emory cranks out dozens of new docs every year. Head to head, the ER doc will probably always win out over the FP's for a job in any ER.

 

[PACtoDOC]

I laugh at all of you who seem to think that the world does not exist outside of city medicine. The vast majority of the country lives outside of major metropolitan centers, and the vast majority of docs don't want to go to these places. So as long as you are a confident physician, when you go to rural and underserved areas, you can do just about anything. It is extremely rare to find EM physicians outside of major urban or suburban areas. In fact, even to get a GS to a rural area is saying a lot. These guys get to do every procedure known to man that they would never do in the city. These guys, along with the FP's, do the EGD's, the colonoscopies, the hystos, the breast surgeries and biopsies, the tonsillectomies, and everything else in between. And ER call is usually shared among local FP's. Most of these places would welcome a full time EM doc to share the burden, but these guys want too much money, and thus will likely never go to these areas where they only see 5-10K patients in the ER per year. So, best guess......rural ED's will be staffed with rural primary care docs for about the next 50 years at least, or at least until LA becomes a western suburb of New York City!!

 

[erichaj]

1. If you are a b/c fp doc, you can get hired in big city to do er. I know of several. It's about how much experience you have.

2. start to moonlight in rural er's then after you get some connections, you can pick up shift in the urban er's. You most likely won't be able to do Trauma one. But you can do trauma 2 and 3 ER. It's about making connections. FP is the perfect residency for ER, you just need more Trauma training.

 

[starayamoskva]

Originally posted by upitt

btw, b/c means board certified = completing residency & usmle 3

Licensed means you have completed residency and USMLE 3. Board certified means you have taken specialty boards to include the oral exam. Most specialties allow you to take boards when you have been in practice from six months to a year and require you to retake them every 8-10 years.