The 5 Reason’s Why I Chose Emergency Medicine, presented by the Baylor EM Class of 2010.

James Cao’s 5 Reasons:

1. The undifferentiated patient: As emergency physicians, we are the first person to see most patients who present with a medical complaint. These patients have new conditions or exacerbations of chronic conditions. It is the job of the emergency physician to take the blank slate and hear the patient’s story to put together the pieces of the puzzle to put the patient on the proper diagnostic pathway. And to do so, we much also accumulate a breadth of medical knowledge with emphasis on the most life threatening conditions.

 2. Resuscitation specialists: We are often termed “Jacks of all trades and masters of none.” However, we like to think of ourselves as resuscitation specialists. When a patient codes, who would you rather have running the code: an emergency physician or an orthopedic surgeon? I went into medicine to save lives and that’s what you do as an emergency physician.

 3. The people: Having met our emergency faculty at Baylor, met faculty and residents at two away rotations, been to two emergency medicine national meetings, I can confidently say that the people in Emergency Medicine are the most awesome people in the world. We have the most supportive faculty of any specialty that come across at Baylor – Drs. Hoxhaj, Fisher, Kapur, Pillow, etc. They are down to earth, caring, and people who you can just sit down and have a beer with.

 4. Flexible hours: Most Emergency Departments have either 8 or 12 hours shifts as faculty. Emergency physicians generally work 40 hour weeks in the community, which means you work 3 to 5 shifts a week. The rest of the time is yours to spend with family, hangout, or do what ever. The trade off is having to work nights, weekends, and holidays. But once you’re done with a shift, you’re done.  

 5. No rounding! Enough said.

 Shane Jenks’ 5 Reasons:

 1.  The undifferentiated patient.  So many different fields of medicine involve interacting with patients that are already on a treatment path.  Emergency Medicine offers an opportunity to interact with patients at the beginning of that path.  With this comes an opportunity for problem solving unlike any other in medicine.

 2.  A mix of technical and cerebral skills.  I loved the procedural specialties but didn’t care for the rigidity of the OR.  EM gives an opportunity to use many different procedural skills mixed in with the other diagnostic and decision making opportunities.

 3. Sick patients.  The acutely ill patient is just plain fun to treat. 

 4.  The team approach to patient care.   The team approach to patient care is unique in EM with many different responsibilities being carried out but many different individuals simultaneously.  For someone that enjoys small group leadership the opportunities in emergency medicine abound.

5. The people.  Each specialty of medicine has its own personality.  The laid-back, fun loving and balanced personalities of emergency medicine agreed with me.