Specialty Designation
Residency
Specialty Code
110
Type
Specialty
Specialty Description

A physician who specializes in emergency medicine focuses on the immediate decision making and action necessary to prevent death or any further disability both in the pre-hospital setting and in the emergency department.

Completing training
2582
With known plans
2288
Pursuing more training
516
Practicing in the US
1297
Group practice
496
In same specialty
1117
In same state as program
400
In NHSC or similar underserved area
6
Academician
413
Full-time
396
Military
55
Non-clinical research
2
Non-medical career/left country
4
Unemployed
1
Academic year
2022
Number of accredited programs
282
Length of accredited training
3/4
Minimum number of prior years required
0
Offers graduate year 1 positions, available immediately upon medical school completion
Yes
Average number of PY1 interviews
148.10
Percent of programs requiring Step 1 score for interview
80.10
Percent of programs requiring Level 1 score (for DOs) for interview
54.20
Total number of active residents/fellows
9030.00
Average number of residents/fellows
32.00
Average percent female
39.90
Average percent international medical graduates
8.70
Average percent DOs
33.70
Average number of full-time physician faculty
29.60
Average number of part-time physician faculty
5.20
Average percent female full-time physician faculty
34.00
Average ratio of full-time physician faculty to resident/fellow
1.10
Average hours on duty per week
55.10
Average maximum consecutive hours on duty
16.90
Average days off duty per week
1.60
Average percent of training in hospital outpatient clinics
9.80
Average percent of training in non-hospital ambulatory care community settings
3.00
Average number of days of vacation
19.80
Average resident/fellow compensation
60046.23
Specialty Overview

What is an emergency medicine physician?

A physician who specializes in Emergency Medicine focuses on the immediate decision making and action necessary to prevent death or any further disability both in the pre-hospital setting by directing emergency medical technicians and in the emergency department. This specialist provides immediate recognition, evaluation, care, stabilization, and disposition of a generally diversified population of adult and pediatric patients in response to acute illness and injury.

How to become an emergency medicine physician?

Specialty training required prior to certification: Three to four years

What does an emergency medicine physician  do?

Although the first residency training programs in emergency medicine opened their doors over 45 years ago, it has already become one of the most popular specialties in the United States. The reasons are clear: emergency medicine offers an exciting and challenging medical career with good work-life balance, schedule flexibility, and patient variety. While emergency medicine certainly isn’t for everyone, recent data suggests the majority of practicing emergency physicians report high levels of happiness outside of work hours.

One of the unique features of emergency medicine that separates it from many other specialties is the diversity of patients treated, the relatively high percentage of time spent in direct patient contact, and the immediate impact you have on improving your patient's health. Emergency physicians treat patients from all walks of life: adults and children, men and women. They also treat a variety of illnesses at all stages, such as patients with neurologic, cardiac, pulmonary, renal, gastrointestinal, orthopaedic, obstetric, dermatologic and psychiatric diseases alike.

Though emergency physicians generally don’t perform major operations, they work with their hands a lot, performing both simple procedures such as laceration repair or fracture reduction, and complex procedures such as endotracheal intubation, chest tube placement, and obtaining emergency vascular access.  Emergency physicians are experts is resuscitation and are trained to respond to any emergency calmly and quickly.

Even though emergency medicine practice can be stressful at times, both emergency physicians and emergency medicine residents have significantly lower working hours overall than most other specialties, though this may regularly include nights, weekends, and holidays. Although most emergency physicians continue to work at least some nights and weekends over their entire career, they have a great deal of flexibility in scheduling their shifts, allowing for greater engagement in activities outside the practice of medicine. Additionally, unlike many of their physician counterparts, they are not likely to be paged or called in, allowing them to attend the extracurricular activities or events they desire.

The best way to find out whether emergency medicine is the right choice for you is to try it out. If it’s not already required at your school, schedule an elective emergency medicine rotation during your third year or early in your fourth year. In order to be competitive when applying for residencies, you will need to complete a few emergency medicine rotations in order to get letters of recommendation from physicians currently practicing in the field. To make the most of your away rotations, consider programs that would be high on your rank list or offering exposure to different practice settings. Also, many medical schools offer first- and second-year students opportunities to shadow an emergency physician for a few hours a week.

The Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA), the American Academy of Emergency medicine Resident & Student Association (AAEM/ RSA), the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians Residents and Student Organization (ACOEP/RSO), the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Resident and Medical Student Academy (SAEM-RAMS), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP), and the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) have additional resources available to help you along the path toward applying for emergency medicine residency.

To learn more about the history of Emergency Medicine watch EMRA’s Emmy and Telle award winning movie 24/7/365.

Association

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Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association
4950 W. Royal Lane
Irving, TX 75063
Phone: (866) 566-2492 Toll Free
Email: [email protected]
https://www.emra.org/
 

 

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American Academy of Emergency Medicine
555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Phone:  (800) 884-2236 or (414) 276-7390
Email: [email protected]
https://www.aaem.org/

 

 

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American Academy of Emergency Medicine Resident and Student Association
555 E. Wells Street, Suite 1100
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Phone:  (800) 884-2236 
Email: [email protected]
https://www.aaem.org/

 

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The American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians
111 West Jackson Blvd, Suite 1412
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone: (847) 686-2235
https://acoep.org/

 

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American College of Emergency Physicians
4950 W. Royal Lane
Irving, TX 75063
Phone: (800) 798-1822 | (972) 550-0911
https://www.acep.org/

 

Society of Academic Emergency Medicine
1111 East Touhy Ave, Suite 540
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Phone: (847) 813-9823
https://www.saem.org/

Grad Year
2022