What Can an ER Physician do?

[Doctor_MD_]

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Hi Guys!
I was just curious... what can an emergency physician do? I know they are not allowed to operate, but besides that, is there anything else that they can't do?

Thanks!

 

[Cerberus]

Hi Guys!
I was just curious... what can an emergency physician do? I know they are not allowed to operate, but besides that, is there anything else that they can't do?

Thanks!

I can't fly, which sucks because I really want to.

 

[Mad Jack]

Technically any physician can do anything. There's nothing you are prohibited from doing by law, it's just that "can" and "should" are two very different things. Also, most things aren't going to be reimbursed if they're outside of what you're BC/BE to do.

 

[namethatsmell]

I give out turkey sandwiches real good.

 

[link2swim06]

Hi Guys!
I was just curious... what can an emergency physician do? I know they are not allowed to operate, but besides that, is there anything else that they can't do?

Thanks!

What do you mean by operate? That is a very vague term.

No we don't take out people's gallbladder if that is what you are asking.

EM does have a lot of procedures ranging from mildly to moderately invasive.

 

[Doctor_MD_]

What do you mean by operate? That is a very vague term.
.

From what I understand, emergency physicians are not allowed to perform appendectomies, c-sections, amputate limbs, etc, but are they allowed to deliver babies or perform an "small" surgery like just suturing a deep wound?

 

[swamprat]

The premed questions asked on this forum is starting to annoy me..

Shadow an ER physician and see for yourself. If your a med student, do a rotation.

 

[Mad Jack]

I give out turkey sandwiches real good.

You must be at Yale.

 

[Mad Jack]

From what I understand, emergency physicians are not allowed to perform appendectomies, c-sections, amputate limbs, etc, but are they allowed to deliver babies or perform an "small" surgery like just suturing a deep wound?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resuscitative_thoracotomy

Minor procedure, totally. There's a lot of big stuff you can do as an ED doc, but it's all things you'll pray you never have to, as you'll only end up doing them in low-resource environments (rural) where you're lacking in trauma surg or ENT or whatever- emergency cricothyrotomies, resuscitative thoracotomies, etc.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

I give out turkey sandwiches real good.

I hear it's hard to find a job doing that unless you're also board certified in writing work release notes.

 

[RustedFox]

Best thread, ever.

Second best thread, ever.

 

[DrDrummer]

You can live your whole life without ever taking call! And you can have a lot of fun at conferences, even the academic ones (😉) because your colleagues are such chill, fun people. I've also heard you're less likely to get a divorce than many other specialties!

Edit- and if you really want to know about the procedures, check out an EM procedures textbook like this one: amazon.com/Emergency-Medicine-Procedures-Second-Edition/dp/0071613501Amazon product ASIN 0071613501 (the link isn't displaying for me, but it's Emergency Medicine Procedures, by Erich Reichman-- I like it especially because it lists all this crazy middle-of-Alaska stuff that I pray I will never, ever look up how to do online. But part of the reason I like EM is that it's filled with the sort of people who, when put in a pinch, can and will look these things up or otherwise figure them out.

 

[Birdstrike]

Two things ER physicians are not able to do:

1-Have a bowel movement at work or,

2-Release water from the bladder at work.

Honorable mention: Eating cannot be done (unless it's a pop tart smuggled in from the outside and inhaled on the fly.)

 

[Mad Jack]

You can live your whole life without ever taking call! And you can have a lot of fun at conferences, even the academic ones (😉) because your colleagues are such chill, fun people. I've also heard you're less likely to get a divorce than many other specialties!

Is it true that you never work nights and weekends, and that holidays are protected time with your family?

 

[Birdstrike]

Is it true that you never work nights and weekends, and that holidays are protected time with your family?

Oh yeah...2 hr power lunches at Capital Grille daily also, baby!

 

[DrDrummer]

Is it true that you never work nights and weekends, and that holidays are protected time with your family?

It can be, but it's difficult to get those jobs unless you train at a top-tier program like In-N-Out.

 

[emergentmd]

My shift usually start like this.

1. Walk in
2. Get coffee and some snack
3. See a few patients.
4. Go to the bathroom
5. Talk to the hot nurses
6. go get lunch
7. surf the internet
8. see a few more patients
9. Check out after 8 hrs
10. Collect my $4k for the day.

 

[hoot504]

Take out #5 and I could almost believe that

 

[Doctor Bob]

Man you guys have it easy.

In my last shift I had to remove a live grenade from a patient's abdomen, deal with an hospitalwide smallpox outbreak, escape a tank that crashed through the front doors, resuscitate a colleague whose arm got cut off by a helicopter blade... all of this while dealing with my own slow growing brain tumor. And there were tons of patients with lupus, a few babies that needed emergent thoracotomies. And I had to build a jet insufflator from tongue depressors and medipore tape.

That was a rough 4 hour shift.



Alternatively, I may have just fallen asleep while watching ER re-runs... I'm not sure.

 

[TexBoundEMDOC]

Anything you can do I can do better...

 

[Angry Birds]

Two things ER physicians are not able to do:

1-Have a bowel movement at work or,

2-Release water from the bladder at work.

Honorable mention: Eating cannot be done (unless it's a pop tart smuggled in from the outside and inhaled on the fly.)

Sometimes I've had to make a cognitive decision: "If I don't go take an emergency dump right now I may accidentally fart/shart in front of a patient."

 

[The White Coat Investor]

All farts are sharts, it's just a matter of volume.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

I can't fly, which sucks because I really want to.

It sucks that you beat me to the first response. I was thinking x-ray vision as I read the OP.

 

[Perrin]

It sucks that you beat me to the first response. I was thinking x-ray vision as I read the OP.

That's why we should have done trauma surgery.