What's a typical day as an Emergency Room Physician?

Answer 1

A typical day as an Emergency Room Physician can be described as a busy day with many cases coming in: trauma patients, any sort of sustained injuries, breathless or nearly breathless patient, chest pains, abdominal pain and other sort of pains, patients in shock, convulsive patient, highly toxic patients, bleeding patients, you name it. An indeed busy day would be a typical day. Otherwise, the unusual days would be a peaceful and quiet day.

Answer 2

Its kinda like apples and oranges when comparing to other docs.

ER docs have a specific shift and are on call on rare occasions. There may be certain times where thy have to be within a certain distance or travel time of the hospital, but they are not usually on call because there is always somebody at the hospital. A typical day for an ER doc may be a little more stressful, but at the end of their shift they can finish out the paper work then head home. The ER doc for the next shift will take care of new patients.

ER docs show up for their shift, talk with the doc who is leaving about the patients that have already been seen but are still there, see patients and do all the work that is associated with it, then go home after wards. ER docs may or may not round (check on patients that are in the hospital) because when a patient is admitted they are usually put onto the service of a non-ER doctor who takes over the patients care.

I did work with some ER docs in my residency that were also boarded in different fields (infectious disease, cardiology) but that is kind of rare if they are already boarded in emergency medicine. These doctors may do in hospital consults and/or may have to round on patients under their care for their other specialty.

Answer 3

10-12 hour shift, in a mid level ER about 200 patients/24 hours: of about 20% trauma--mostly minor unless you work in a trauma center--broken bones, lacerations, dislocations, skate board injuries, car accidents etc. About 1% sphincter-tightening full-on codes, about 50% medical stuff--abdominal pain, weak and dizzy, migraine, nausea & vomiting, difficulty breathing, asthma etc. The rest is stuff that could have gone to the MDs or an urgent care but didn't and really doesn't need an ER. Other than see patients, you read Xrays, EKGs. draw blood & start IVs as a last resort, answer questions (and answer and answer and answer), give orders and consult with other staff; hold on the phone for transfer information and occasionally run like mad to a floor emergency or one in the parking lot.

So overall, a lot of hard work juggling alot of different, routine tasks simultaneously with small bursts of you-know-what puckering full-on adrenalin events

Answer 4

The salary for private anesthesiologists is usually quite good and can range from $250K to above $500K per year. I find that around $350K is about average; however, there will be a lot of variation depending on where you practice (NYC, Boston, DC, large cities pay much less), how new you are, and your productivity. Also, you will also find that many practices will pay for your malpractice insurance and administrative costs (It comes out of your pocket either way, but it's nice not to have to worry about it). Thus, for many $350 is their take home before taxes. Anesthesiologists usually are given a schedule of surgeries ahead of time. Either the day before or the morning before the surgery, they screen the patient and make sure the patient will be appropriate for receiving anesthesia. They wil also decide the appropriate modality for the surgical procedure.