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What’s an ER doctor’s role?

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Emergency rooms treat a wide range of medical issues, from the common cold to life-threatening injuries. Emergency physicians must triage patients, treat a variety of symptoms, and delegate authority to nurses and staff. They must also have a broad knowledge of medicine and determine who needs immediate treatment.

Hospitals around the world always have an emergency room where patients can receive medical treatment that cannot wait for a scheduled appointment with a doctor. Among the many people who work in the emergency room are nurses, technicians, staff, and at least one emergency room doctor. The job of an emergency physician is one of the most stressful positions for a physician, as there is no way of knowing what type of injury or illness will walk through the door at any given moment. An emergency room physician must triage patients entering the emergency room, be prepared to treat a wide range of injuries, and delegate authority to nurses and support staff in the emergency room.

Hospital emergency rooms can treat everything from the common cold to a life-threatening gunshot wound in the course of one shift. Many hospitals have a policy that no one will be turned away from the emergency room, which means that, along with life-threatening emergencies, many uninsured patients or parents overly concerned about sick children will also pass through the doors of an emergency room. One of the most important jobs of an emergency physician is to determine who needs immediate treatment and who can wait.

Triage is often not as easy as it sounds. While some serious or life-threatening injuries are obvious, others are not. A gushing gunshot wound clearly needs to go to the top of the triage line, but sometimes people suffer internal injuries or illnesses that are not as visible, but just as serious. An emergency room physician only has a few minutes, if any, to determine whether a patient’s symptoms require immediate attention or whether he or she can wait.

After triage, the emergency room physician must be prepared to treat the wide range of symptoms they see every day. Unlike physicians who specialize in a specific area of ​​medicine, an emergency physician must have a working knowledge of all areas of medicine. An emergency physician must know at least enough to refer the patient to a specialist if necessary, which requires a considerable amount of knowledge about many areas of medicine.

In addition to the actual physician, an emergency physician must also know how to delegate authority and work with the various members of the emergency team. Nurses, technicians and staff play a vital role in an emergency room and look to the attending physician for guidance. For example, once the emergency room physician has determined that a patient is not in immediate danger, he may delegate the patient’s care to one of the nurses in the emergency room, or he may ask a technician to complete diagnostic tests. in the patient.

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