Scope of Practice?
Started by Bond8204
If you have that much respect for EM why don't you ask an EM faculty member at your school. However, if you ask it the way you asked it on here I would wait until after they write your test questions.
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Ok I'm gonna rephrase my question to be more direct, but it's obviously simplified, and again, as a rising 2nd year med student, my clinical experience is limited and I admit naivete.
How much of emergency medicine is 1) (maybe) stabilizing, history/physical taking, ordering labs and pictures, (maybe) diagnosing, and admitting to the appropriate area of the hopsital (or discharging)....and how often do you 2) peform procedures that actually "fix" the diagnosed medical issue? What are some examples or stories of 2)?
The only EM clinical faculty we know are in charge of our grades for clinical medicine class. And it's a difficult topic just to bring up. Rephrased my question.
How much of emergency medicine is 1) (maybe) stabilizing, history/physical taking, ordering labs and pictures, (maybe) diagnosing, and admitting to the appropriate area of the hopsital (or discharging)....and how often do you 2) peform procedures that actually "fix" the diagnosed medical issue? What are some examples or stories of 2)?
The only EM clinical faculty we know are in charge of our grades for clinical medicine class. And it's a difficult topic just to bring up. Rephrased my question.
There's a ton of stabilizing. That's really what the specialty is supposed to be about. There's a lot of scut just like any other specialty. Charts don't write themselves.
There are things that we "fix" or at least fix as much as any other specialty. We cardiovert SVT and Afib and then send them out under the right conditions. We reduce dislocations and fix lacerations.
If you're looking for definitive care of appys or fractures then that's not us.
well, I can tell you from what I've seen that 80% of EM is medical and not surgical. In my mind, it's one of those dichotomies. You're either going to like one, the other, or neither. Spend time in the OR, if you can't get enough of that room and want to spend all your free time there, bypass EM and go straight to surg. We're not a substitute by any means. (I've had friends who liked surg, uro, and ophtho, and were considering EM until I made them realize they were just looking at EM for the occasional procedure)
Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to - I'm just going to need to get experience in both. As I said above, I've always had a strong interest in EM--mostly based on what I've read from pretty reliable sources...but then shadowed for the first time at the end of my 1st year and had a pretty negative experience--granted it was a night shift at a hospital that's not too busy. Nevertheless the doors are more wide open than they've ever been.
I love the variety of people and presentations you see with EM. I love the idea of stabilizing somebody in an emergency. EM sounds like it is somewhat procedural. I think I'd really like the "team" aspect of the ER. I'm not as keen on starting from scratch with nearly every patient's diagnosis, the high volume of non-emergent cases in the ER, and the lack of continuity of care for patients.
Thing is, I had a love/hate with anatomy...it was torture to learn until I had a unit down pat, at which point I enjoyed it. I also wasn't particularly good at dissection, though I wasn't considering surgery at the time so I didn't really try too hard either. And while I get along very well with the type, I'm not exactly your stereotypical "boys club" surgical jock.
You're right I need to try to get some more experience in both settings.
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