Why Americans are crazy about EM ? - urodoc

[ArchivalUser]

Hi friends !
I'm planning to apply for EM residency, and it is no secret that it is 1 of the toughest residencies for an IMG, simply coz Americans love it like anything, but after having looked at it a bit closely, I was a bit confused.
EM physician's salaries hardly cross 200000/annum mark, which is way less than what a cardiologist (or for that matter any specialist doctor in America earns), the life is hell lot tough and very stressful, and u can never have a private practice as an ER doc. And with due respects to our American friends, I believe most Americans want an easy life with loads of money (everybody wants the same actually !!), so EM by no means fits this description, yet AMGs want it madly.
Can somebody please tell me why ?
And for heaven's sake, please do not say that it is coz of those TV series like ER and House and all that, coz those are lame excuses, nobody is foolish enough to choose a career based on factitious TV characters !!
PLease post ur responses, I thank u all in advance !!

[ArchivalUser]

bcoz they love hollywood

[ArchivalUser]

Whats it gotta do with hollywood ?

[ArchivalUser]

Can somebody please give a decent answer ?

[ArchivalUser]

They love ER for the same reason you love it.

[ArchivalUser]

hello mr urodoc...
you are right that AMGs love EM ....
but one reason that we see lots of AMG DRs in this field is due to a preferance of PDs for AMGs in the risky field like EM and surgical branches..... because PDs do not prefer IMGs in such branches......
and another reason might be preassumption of IMGs about EM that this program is almost impossible to get for IMGs so they dont eveb try to apply and waste $s after applying in such programs.....

[ArchivalUser]

Well, according to FRIEDA, surgery has ~20% IMG residents ,while EM has only 5.2%, so certainly this risky explanation is not very convincing, what do u say about this ?

[ArchivalUser]

hollywood has glamourised this whole specialty, you can count almost half a dozen movies bases on E.R. How many times does these movies show that the patient died ? rarely, but in reality everyone of us knows about the casualties and ill condition of the patient that sometimes can't be dramatized on TV.

Its human psychology that when you like something you tend to become one too. Before Mid 90s nobody wanted to join E.R because of hard job, unpredictable timings but now hollywood shine has just faded these things and now they remember only lovely nurses, famous personalities and more then this the "thrill" of ER.

One more thing that you cant compare ER internist with Cardiologist or Hemono ppl as they do total 6 years training and ER medicine is 4 years.

Lastly we should respect those who have choosen ER (without knowing why) because this is there profession and this is what they want to do there whole life regardless of lower income and toughness of field.

[ArchivalUser]

I have no disrespect for either IM or EM docs . I just have to make a decision in next few weeks, which one to pursue , its a matter of my career, and potentially my life, so I'm just asking for honest advices.
Anybody else wanna give a piece of their minds here ?
Thanks

[ArchivalUser]

Dear Urodoc,

I will tell you why, American graduates pursue the speciality because:

1. Being an Emergency Medicine doctor you can have a really good LIFESTYLE. By that I mean you can work 3 days on and 4 days off. The lifestyle is great compared to other specialities like Surgery or OB/GYN.

2. The salary is not bad for the amount of time spent in the hospital.

3. Some people want patient but only for that 1 encounter.

4. There is a certain amount of excitement involved in the field depending on the location. I would guess that in some cases the ER might be slow then all of a sudden gunshot victims/MVA's etc get the adrenaline pumping and some people find this appealing.

I think overall though it is the lifestyle that is most appealing. Keep in mind this is just my opinion.

Good Luck

Klebsiella