Emergency Medicine Physicians
Under the title Emergency Medicine Physicians, workers make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. The job can ask you to select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs. On the six-type interest model it reads ISC, meaning research, analysis and working through hard problems comes first, followed by helping, teaching or caring for people. Plan on graduate school and often five years or more of related experience; O*NET labels this extensive preparation. Strength in critical thinking, active listening, and speaking helps most here. People who want research, analysis and working through hard problems usually fit better here than those who need creative work with room for original expression.
What they do
Make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. Provide immediate recognition, evaluation, care, stabilization, and disposition of patients. May direct emergency medical staff in an emergency department.
Main tasks
- Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs and priority of treatment.
- Perform emergency resuscitations on patients.
- Stabilize patients in critical condition.
- Perform such medical procedures as emergent cricothyrotomy, endotracheal intubation, and emergency thoracotomy.
- Analyze records, examination information, or test results to diagnose medical conditions.
Skills
- Critical Thinking
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
Who this career fits
May suit you if
- You enjoy working out why something happens, not just what happened.
- You get energy from helping other people move forward.
- You are prepared for graduate-level study and a long training path.
- You are comfortable relying on critical thinking and active listening.
May not suit you if
- You lose interest when a job asks for long stretches of analysis.
- You need creative expression to be a big part of your day. Artistic rates 1.0 out of 7 here.
- You want to be working in the field within the next few years.
Interest profile
O*NET rates each occupation from 1 to 7 on six interest types. The code ISC takes the three highest, and Investigative comes first here.
Preparation
Extensive preparation. Many jobs here need graduate study, and people often spend five years or more building specialist experience.
Most-reported requirement in the O*NET survey: Post-Doctoral Training. This reflects what workers reported most often and is not a legal minimum. Licensing rules can differ by state or industry, so confirm what applies where you plan to work.
Also called
- Attending Emergency Physician
- Attending Physician
- Emergency MD (Emergency Medicine Doctor)
- Emergency Medicine Physician (EM Physician)
- Emergency Physician
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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.