Emergency physician

Emergency physician
Emergency medicine simulation
Occupation
Occupation type
Specialty
Activity sectors
Medicine
Description
Education required
Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine
Fields of
employment
Hospitals, Clinics, Helicopter Emergency Medical Service

An emergency physician (often called an "ER doctor" in the United States) is a physician who works in an emergency department to care for ill patients. The emergency physician specializes in advanced cardiac life support (advanced life support in Europe), resuscitation, trauma care such as fractures and soft tissue injuries, and management of other life-threatening situations.

In some European countries (e.g. Germany, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden), emergency physicians/anaesthetists[1] are also part of the emergency medical service. They are dispatched together with emergency medical technicians and paramedics in cases of potentially life-threatening situations for patients (heart attacks, serious accidents, resuscitations or unconsciousness, strokes, drug overdoses, etc.).[2] In the United States, emergency physicians are mostly hospital-based, but also work on air ambulances and mobile intensive-care units.

Patients who are brought in the emergency department are usually sent to triage first. The patient may be triaged by an emergency physician, a paramedic, or a nurse; in the United States, triage is usually performed by a registered nurse. If the patient requires admission to the hospital, another physician, such as an internal medicine physician, cardiologist, or neurologist takes over from the emergency physician.

  1. ^ "Training". Ibtphem.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
  2. ^ "Emergency Medicine - A Practical Perspective". Loyala University Medical Education Network. Retrieved 4 October 2020.