Medical careers in emergency management will appeal to those who thrive in a fast paced work situation that demands quick thinking and efficient handling. Medical careers generally involve sustained work with patients, treating or assisting them through the period of illness until health is recovered. But emergency medical care focuses on handling the crisis quickly with minimal but necessary treatment, and transporting or transferring the patient to an appropriate medical service.
Resource: Top 10 Emergency Management Bachelor’s Degrees Online 2016-2017
If the above description draws your interest, here are five medical careers in emergency management that you may wish to explore.
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic
EMTs are health care providers with the training to provide quick medical service in emergency situations such as an accident, fire or natural disaster. There are three levels of training with increased coursework and length of training. EMT-Basic provides the first level of training and includes 120 to 150 hours of coursework covering patient assessments and handling emergency situations. Students learn how to provide basic life support for injured and critically ill patients, with skills such as CPR, airway management, controlling excessive bleeding, and treating for shock and poisoning. They also learn the proper use of field equipment and safe transport of patients.
EMT-Intermediate requires 200 – 400 hours of training and includes additional courses and skills training such as handling drug-related calls, behavioral crises, and emergency childbirth. The use of complex airway devices, giving intravenous fluids and providing medications are also included.
Paramedics receive more formal training of 1000 or more hours in six to twelve month programs with courses such as anatomy and physiology, cardiology, medical procedures and medications. Paramedic training is also offered in many community colleges in two-year programs, culminating in an associate’s degree. Paramedics learn about procedures to follow in the full range of urgent and emergency care. These can involve strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrest, spinal injuries and trauma.
Emergency Room (ER) Physician
Emergency medicine physicians work in the emergency room of a hospital or urgent care clinic. They are trained as MDs with the addition of a three- or four-year postgraduate residency training in emergency medicine, which is completed by taking the American Board of Emergency Medicine examination.
ER physicians must be prepared to handle any acute emergency condition that is presented, whether medical, surgical or psychiatric. They perform the procedures necessary to stabilize patients and then to refer them to the appropriate medical departments. In this process, they evaluate, order tests, diagnose and treat any acute physical injury as well as medical conditions such as strokes or heart attacks. They may perform invasive procedures, administer medication and use medical devices. They discuss the patient’s condition with specialists or surgeons when a referral is indicated. They may educate patients on their conditions and help them to understand and accept what is necessary for recovery.
Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse
The critically ill newly born or premature infant needs the care of a specialist who is certified as a neonatal intensive care nurse. This nurse operates the technology that helps the neonate to breathe and to be fed intravenously. Working under the direction of a physician, the nurse cares for the newborn and educates the mother about the baby’s condition and the care required, about breastfeeding and other questions the mother may have.
To become a neonatal intensive care nurse, an RN who has several years of neonatal nursing care experience takes and passes the Neonatal Nursing Certification exam through the American Association of Critical Care Nursing.
Neonatal intensive care nursing is only one of medical careers in emergency nursing. Other specializations include emergency room, ICU, acute critical care, cardiac care, pediatric intensive care, trauma nursing and life-flight care.
Flight Surgeon
Flight surgeons are primary care physicians with military status that are specially trained in aviation medicine. Each of the three branches of the armed services have their own parallel training program. Although referred to as “surgeons”, they do not perform surgery. Instead, they provide clinical services in the air, and also conduct research and analyses to make recommendations for effective operational systems and environments for improved flight performance. Flight surgeons generally start as pilots who then undergo medical training and become pilot-physicians.
The training in the U.S. Air Force is an eight-week Aerospace Medicine Primary Course, followed by a three-year Residency in Aerospace Medicine (RAM). The Navy has a parallel program with a longer Flight Surgeon Primary Course followed by a RAM. The Army has a six week primary course followed by the three-year RAM.
Wilderness and Rescue Medicine
The beginning of wilderness medicine is seen as the addition of certain medical principles and procedures to Outward Bound first aid training in the early 1980s. The training focuses on teaching the ability to think and function during emergency situations in disasters or in settings where medical service is not available. These emergency situations may involve prolonged patient care, a difficult or dangerous environment, and improvised equipment.
Specialties in wilderness medicine include diving, tropical and travel medicine, high-altitude and mountaineering, expedition, rescue and evacuation, survival, general environmental medicine, improvised medicine, disaster and humanitarian assistance, and wilderness emergencies and trauma management.
The above five career areas give only a hint of the variety of specializations available in this engaging and challenging occupational field. If you’re the outdoorsy type, or drawn to military service, or like the idea of rescue work during disasters, or would be at your best in a fast paced, demanding emergency situation in or out of the hospital, a medical career in emergency management may be the right field for you.