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Concept
Emergency physician
Summary
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 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.). 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. Suppose the patient is admitted to the hospital. In that case, another physician such as a cardiologist or neurologist takes over from the emergency physician.
The standard training route of emergency physicians in the United States is 4 years of college, four years of an approved medical school, and then a three or four year residency in emergency medicine. After completion of residency it is common for American emergency physician's to work in a hospital's emergency department and take the board certification necessary to become certified in emergency medicine. This includes a 300+ question written exam followed by an oral exam.
Emergency physicians in the United States typically work in Emergency Departments. Patient's come in for a variety of reasons from severe life threatening complaints such as strokes and heart attacks to potentially life threatening complaints like severe abdominal pain and to less severe complaints such as mild injuries.
Official source
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