I'm curious here. Some people have told me that an ER surgeon is actually a trauma surgeon. I'm wondering b/c i have heard that ER doctors have a good schedule since they work shifts. So what exactly does an ER doctor do? what does his job consist of? any surgery? thanks.
Also what would you say is the best medical specialty in terms of lifestyle (free time) and salary?
Also what would you say is the best medical specialty in terms of lifestyle (free time) and salary?
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ER doc do do some procedures if needed. They put in chest tubes, I've seen them crack a patents chest to do stop bleeding, plus the obvious suturing of wounds.
When a patient comes to the ER with serious trauma hopefully the trauma team would have been called to be on hand when the patient arrives. That's not always possible, or the hospital is not a level one trauma center and doesn't have a trauma surgeon on stand by. The ER docs will do what is necessary to try and save someones life. If you are bleeding to death someone needs to stop the bleeding now and you can't just stand by and hope the surgeon gets there in time.
In general surgery isn't performed in the ER. They patient will be stabilized and sent off to surgery. Sometimes it requires heroic efforts in the ER including opening the patients chest in an attempt to get them stable enough to go to surgery.
ER docs don't have regular patients so once they leave work they are done. As far as schedules, they still can be rough because they are often 12hour shifts and someone needs to be there in the middle of the night. On the up side is you can often choose how many shifts a week you want to work.
What you do will depend on the kind of ER hospital has. Is it a small community hospital, or a major medical center with level 1 trauma. If is small you might be the only doc there but generally treat minor trauma and acute medical conditions. If you are in a trauma center, you will see, gun shot wounds, knife wounds car crash victims, pedestrians struck by cars, heart attacks, strokes, I could go on and on. Your job is to get them stable and referred to the correct specialty for further treatment.
When a patient comes to the ER with serious trauma hopefully the trauma team would have been called to be on hand when the patient arrives. That's not always possible, or the hospital is not a level one trauma center and doesn't have a trauma surgeon on stand by. The ER docs will do what is necessary to try and save someones life. If you are bleeding to death someone needs to stop the bleeding now and you can't just stand by and hope the surgeon gets there in time.
In general surgery isn't performed in the ER. They patient will be stabilized and sent off to surgery. Sometimes it requires heroic efforts in the ER including opening the patients chest in an attempt to get them stable enough to go to surgery.
ER docs don't have regular patients so once they leave work they are done. As far as schedules, they still can be rough because they are often 12hour shifts and someone needs to be there in the middle of the night. On the up side is you can often choose how many shifts a week you want to work.
What you do will depend on the kind of ER hospital has. Is it a small community hospital, or a major medical center with level 1 trauma. If is small you might be the only doc there but generally treat minor trauma and acute medical conditions. If you are in a trauma center, you will see, gun shot wounds, knife wounds car crash victims, pedestrians struck by cars, heart attacks, strokes, I could go on and on. Your job is to get them stable and referred to the correct specialty for further treatment.