ER Doctor Requirements: Info for Aspiring Emergency Room Doctors
Emergency room doctors respond to life-and-death situations making instant decisions and providing emergency medical treatment. The road to becoming an ER doctor is long and challenging, requiring up to 12 years of education and hands-on study and practice.
Required Steps to Becoming an ER Doctor
Step One: Complete an Undergraduate Degree
Many aspiring ER doctors begin their path to becoming board certified physicians by completing pre-med studies as undergrads. A pre-med undergraduate degree is by no means the only acceptable path to medical school. Medical school applicants are a diverse group with a variety of majors, such as English, psychology and history, as well as biology and chemistry.
All applicants must meet the prerequisites established by medical schools. These typically include completion of coursework in biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics and mathematics. In addition, advanced life science courses are generally recommended and help applicants perform better on another med school requirement, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).
Step Two: Enter Medical School
Because medical school admissions are keenly competitive, strong performance on the MCAT is a must. Chemistry, biology, organic chemistry and physics are covered in this rigorous, daylong exam. Applicants who have completed prerequisite coursework, have earned a high GPA, can produce strong letters of recommendation and have achieved outstanding MCAT scores have a fighting chance of getting into a respected medical school.
During their four years of medical studies, medical students will not choose a major but instead undertake a challenging course of study that provides a foundation of medical knowledge as well as exposure to several kinds of medical practice. Rotations through all the departments in a hospital begin in the third year, which provide the needed experience that allows medical students to select an area of specialization for their residency.
Step Three: Get Matched with an ER Residency
Matching is the term used for the process that begins in the last year of medical school for finding a placement in a paid post-graduate residency program in which a Doctor of Medicine (MD) becomes an ER doctor. Some ER residencies require that residents serve a preliminary year in a less hectic medical environment and gradually acquire the confidence and skills necessary to work in the ER. In other programs, residents go to work directly in the ER under the supervision of experienced ER doctors. During the three or four year program, residents learn to respond to a wide variety of acute medical issues and stabilize patients for release or for further treatment by a specialist.
Step Four: Become Board Certified
In addition to becoming licensed to practice medicine, physicians can become board certified in their area of specialization after completing their residency, working as an ER doctor for a year or continuing to a subspecialty fellowship program and passing strenuous examinations.
Licensure, which is mandatory, is earned by passing a national qualification exam generally after completion of medical school. Board certification demonstrates that a physician has met the minimum requirements to practice medicine by establishing expertise. Two certifying boards for emergency medicine are the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM) and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).
Step Five: Engage in Continuous Professional Development
Regular continuing education is required by both the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM) and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) for maintenance of board certification. The ABMS, www.abms.org, has adopted a model used to measure continuous professional development according to 'six core competencies for quality patient care,' which include medical knowledge and practice-based learning.
Lifelong learning opportunities are determined by each specialty member board. Typically, medical schools feature a department of continuing medical education with frequent course offerings in each specialty, such as emergency medicine, that address the key areas of care in this model.
Finally, many ER doctors complete fellowships of one or two years' duration to gain expertise in a subspecialty, such as medical toxicology, pediatric emergency medicine or sports medicine, which also carry similar board certification and maintenance requirements.
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