Why did you chose Emergency Medicine?

[skyeblue0610]

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(Yes, I have "embraced" the search box and didn't find anything related to want I wanted to know. I'm in pre-med and most of the FAQ's or search threads apply to med students.)

I know it gets irritating being asked the same thing over and over but the search isn't very helpful when you want to know something recent and it takes you to a thread from a few years ago or archived) It does get a bit intimidating asking questions on these threads just because you guys are already doctors and in a sense it feels like you want to help but sometimes not really just because you are already there and the search box is more handy.

So, Emergency Medicine is the first field that has clicked with me. I have so much respect for ER doctors because I know how many patients they see in a day and I know it's frustrating for the patients waiting for hours and the doctors having to deal with the grips of patients who have been waiting.

I like the idea of being a jack of all trades. I thought about neurology but I don't want to limit myself to just one field. I want to be able to handle anything that comes my way. It was between family and emergency and somehow emergency clicked. I know I still have time but I like having my mind set on something beforehand.

I know the hours get tricky. But I've always been a night person somewhat and in the mornings it doesn't take much to get me fully awake.

So what made you chose Emergency Medicine?🙂

 

[Drogba]

I'm also a premed, but I've been following the EM forum for well over a year. Let me tell you some of the practical qualities I've seen mentioned on this forum that some find attractive.

Shift work, and ability to control work hours/wk.
Relatively high salary.
General vs specialist knowledge.
No chronic care/long term patient relationships.
Moderately competitive residency.

Personal considerations vary from my recollection but those qualities seem to be nearly universaly appreciated by EPs.

 

[shortbread9]

Why did i choose emergency medicine? Well mostly because it was the one month that i really truly enjoyed. I could see myself doing it for years! I liked my Ob month, medicine was tolerable, surgery cool but the lifestyle sucks, etc. And i just didnt think i would like it as a career. I just found what fit for me. I like working a patient up from scratch...love not having to follow them in a clinic when usually they are non compliant anyways. Rounding and taking call are two things that make me gouge my eyes out. Shift work is the best!
I am in my first year of em residency and currently on a surgery month. Q3 is very painful.its really really hard and the majority of my time is spent doing scut...i dont have any patients of my own, and ive barely had time in the OR. We also round which is almost as awful as the 30 hour calls. Its not rewarding at all. But months like these reaffirms many of the reasons i love EM and why i picked it. to top it off...most em people are laid back and actually have a life and personality. They have time for a family, to travel, for other interests. I feel really lucky that i ended up loving EM and it just happens to have a pretty good lifestyle and pay...but if i had loved Surgery or medicine more i would have done that. It just comes down to whats a good fit for you, what you can see yourself doing years from now and being somewhat happy doing it.

 

[quinsy]

I think the front page article on SDN this week pretty much sums it up. 🙂

Also, most of the best stories are in EM, as evidenced in this forum.

 

[Jeff698]

Because I went to medical school to be an EMS medical directory.

Fortunately for me, I found I love the specialty, too.

Take care,
Jeff

 

[MedicFL]

Because I went to medical school to be an EMS medical directory.

Fortunately for me, I found I love the specialty, too.

Take care,
Jeff

Director? Just messing with ya, thats the path I hope to follow down as well..

 

[EctopicFetus]

for the chicks

 

[Faze2]

for the chicks

Yeah, homeless chicks'll do anything! Wait!! What?.....

 

[howelljolly]

(Yes, I have "embraced" the search box and didn't find anything related to want I wanted to know. I'm in pre-med and most of the FAQ's or search threads apply to med students.)

I know it gets irritating being asked the same thing over and over but the search isn't very helpful when you want to know something recent and it takes you to a thread from a few years ago or archived) It does get a bit intimidating asking questions on these threads just because you guys are already doctors and in a sense it feels like you want to help but sometimes not really just because you are already there and the search box is more handy.

So, Emergency Medicine is the first field that has clicked with me. I have so much respect for ER doctors because I know how many patients they see in a day and I know it's frustrating for the patients waiting for hours and the doctors having to deal with the grips of patients who have been waiting.

I like the idea of being a jack of all trades. I thought about neurology but I don't want to limit myself to just one field. I want to be able to handle anything that comes my way. It was between family and emergency and somehow emergency clicked. I know I still have time but I like having my mind set on something beforehand.

I know the hours get tricky. But I've always been a night person somewhat and in the mornings it doesn't take much to get me fully awake.

So what made you chose Emergency Medicine?🙂

Just some food for thought. Regardless of what specialty you choose, you will be trained to handle anything that comes your way.

Primary care fields and Emergency Med are kinda like the front gates. Many different "things" will come your way. You'll know how to manage many different organ systems, and any type of complaint.

In specialties such as neurology you'll know how to deal with anything that comes your way. The difference is that what comes your way will be essentially pre-screened as being what you are a master of. All sorts of neuro patients will come to you with all sorts of neuro complaints, and you'll be able to manage all of them.

Allow me to make up a bad example, just to explain
-If a patient with myasthenia gravis (a neuro disease usully ending with respiratory arrest) comes into your ER with difficulty breathing, You know you have to keep him breathing, and send them to a neurologist.
-If a patient with a gun shot to the chest comes into your Neurology clinic, you know that you have to keep them breathing and send them to the ER.

Doctors aren't Superman. One of the most important things about being a scientist isnt knowing everything, It is knowing where to find out about everything.

That said, EM rocks! What I like about it is the frontline diagnosis, variety of diseases/organ systems, procedures, acute management, but NO long term management, and cool fellowships like EMS and Wilderness/Travel Medicine.

 

[WallowaWanderer]

Why did i choose emergency medicine? Well mostly because it was the one month that i really truly enjoyed.

I think this is the only good reason to go into any field - you have to love it and have a passion for it. The great thing about medical school is that you get to try everything, and almost everyone finds out which specialties they love and which they can just sort of deal with. It's sort of like getting married - how do you know this is the one? You just know. I didn't make a pros and cons list. It wasn't a rationally thought out process for me. I think shiftwork, "lifestyle," money, etc are all bad reasons to go into EM and I know if I chose a specialty based on these reasons I would be unsatisfied. But for other people it might work that way.

When I did my first EM rotation during third year, I remember being so amped when I came home from a shift. It wasn't because I had seen critical patients or great trauma, either. I mean, I was in a tiny peds ED seeing gastroenteritis, lacerations, ALTEs, and abdominal pain. But i just freaking loved it - making the diagnosis, managing multiple patients at one time, joking with nurses at the nurses station when its slow and actually getting to know them, working my butt off and then going home, working with my hands, seeing interventions actually make a difference, making quick decisions and then seeing the results, seeing pathology I had only learned about in medical school, getting to do a little bit of every specialty.

Since I had worked as a tech and an EMT before med school, I was scared I would choose EM just because that's what I knew. So I actually took my EM rotation after all my required courses to see if I would like anything else. That worked really well for me because it allowed me to try out each specialty before I made a final decision and this is what made me so sure that EM kicks a**.


Good luck with everything OP

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

for the chicks

money, chicks, and status!

 

[Jeff698]

Director? Just messing with ya, thats the path I hope to follow down as well..

Naw, I wanted to be a walking listing of all EMS medical directors. I'd be the first true directory. 🙂

Take care,
Jeff

 

[ByronOrpheus]

Yeah, homeless chicks'll do anything! Wait!! What?.....

 

[GeneralVeers]

The best are the gyn patients who look at me and say "Gee you're a cute doctor".

Score!

 

[ByronOrpheus]

The best are the gyn patients who look at me and say "Gee you're a cute doctor".

Score!

That has to rank pretty highly on the "awkward situation" list...lol.

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

We need to make a top ten list..


....I can actually start counting down to the end of my calls as an intern; and not still have some crazy number to complete.

....In the future, I won't have to be at my 21st hour of no sleep at 2AM on a early sunday morning...with probably 10 more to go.

....I don't have to read everyone elses writing and be at the mercy of consults rounding whenever they wish. If I call you to come see an ED pt, you better be there in a timely manner or you will get a memo from someone higher up (administration).

....I could have actually went hunting probably a dozen times or more already this month...instead of the three days off I have had thus far this month which were mostly spent in bed from the deprivation 100+ hour weeks leave you.

....No Fun-o-Meter going off.... speaking of that, its not ringing so I am going to TRY to get some sleep.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Yeah, homeless chicks'll do anything! Wait!! What?.....

Sounds like someones desperate

 

[Faze2]

Sounds like someones desperate

Hey, a great man once said, "You &*$% what's available." (thanks dad)

 

[Faze2]

The best are the gyn patients who look at me and say "Gee you're a cute doctor".

Score!

It never is that hot 20 year old that just has an infected clitoris ring is it? It is always the 40 year old obese women that has green d/c from her vagina.

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

It never is that hot 20 year old that just has an infected clitoris ring is it? It is always the 40 year old obese women that has green d/c from her vagina.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that sounds like a pick your poison...

 

[Faze2]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that sounds like a pick your poison...

 

[ByronOrpheus]

It never is that hot 20 year old that just has an infected clitoris ring is it? It is always the 40 year old obese women that has green d/c from her vagina.

It's not as if healthy hot women come to the ER to show off their goodies. There is always a problem and it is usually so traumatic to see that it feels like a week long cold shower....or so I imagine.

 

[Wackie]

Top three reasons, in no particular order, from polling some of the EM docs I work with:

Life style (read: shift work-no oncall)
No rounds
ADD (instant results)

 

[skyeblue0610]

Thanks for the responses🙂 So far I feel drawn to EM but I still have time