Emergency Medicine as a Specialty When med school students were graduating 20 or 30 years ago emergency medicine was not looked on as a specialty in the same vein as the cardiologist or oncologist. If anything, it was the orphan stepchild of specialties staffed mainly by doctors who were working toward other specialties while using the emergency room as a place of temporary employment. But that has changed over the last decade to the extent that emergency medicine is its own specialty with its own board certification. As the specialty has developed it was inevitable there would be a shortage of doctors to fill all of the emergency medicine jobs around the country. Current statistics suggest there will continue to be a shortage of board-certified emergency medicine physicians for the next 18 to 20 years. The sticking point seems to be the residency issue; something that's evolved over the last five or six years but which few physicians are aware of. New Residency Requirements In order to apply for emergency medicine jobs as a physician you now must meet certain residency requirements. It used to be that doctors would train in other specialty, getting a residency in that specialty, and then eventually make the transition into emergency medicine. Board certification only required a certain length of practice at that time. But certification for emergency medicine has since changed and now requires its own separate residency.

To be a board-certified emergency medicine physician you now must undergo a 3 to 4 year ABEM or AOBEM accredited residency program in order to learn all the necessary skills. During that time the doctor works in the emergency room under the supervision of an already-certified emergency medicine physician. Once the residency is complete he'll have plenty of choices of where he wants to work and in what capacity. Lots of Choices There are two primary advantages to choosing emergency medicine as a specialty. The first is found in the fact that emergency medicine jobs are available in a wide variety of choices. The

individual doctor could work for a hospital or clinic as a permanent, salaried staff member; he could join a group of emergency medicine physicians who contract their services to local hospitals; he could work for a staffing agency as a locum tenens emergency medicine physician; he could approach it on his own and work as a contractor. The second benefit is the relatively low startup cost for this type of practice. Because the doctor works in the emergency room of a hospital or clinic, he has no physical property of his own to set up outside of a home office (if he decides that's necessary). The hospital or clinic provides all of the equipment, supplies, space, and so on. With just malpractice insurance and a few other minor business expenses, the emergency medicine physician is up and running. Statistics show that graduates who pursue this specialty begin making good money up front because they don't have the overhead of other types of practices. If you’re searching for emergency medicine jobs check out Weatherby Locums emergency medicine job search - Weatherby Locums specializes in providing quality physicians to the healthcare industry on a temporary basis throughout the United States.