Emergency and Critical Care Medicine

Find a high paced career path with emergency and critical care medicine
By Nikki Davis If you are considering emergency and critical care medicine, prepare yourself to jump into a fast paced, adrenaline streamed job field. From being an EMT to working as an emergency medical service technician, to being the doctor in charge of the entire area, staying abreast of the latest information is key.
 

As an emergency medicine provider, you should stay informed by reading the latest journals as well as considering joining a critical care medicine organization. Emergency and critical care medicine affiliations are a wonderful resource because they can provide you networking opportunities, seminars and conferences as well as continuing medical education (CME) opportunities.

To find the right emergency medicine resources for you, ask yourself:

1. Are you looking for general information to increase your knowledge base?

2. Are you looking for a clinical critical care medicine, nursing or EMT paramedic career opportunity?

3. Are you looking to join a critical care medical services affiliation for its membership benefits?

4. Are you looking to find a specific emergency medical care publication?

Find general critical care medicine information

Find and use critical care medicine information and resources to increase your knowledge base on the subject or before you jump into emergency care as a career path.
Try: Check out the critical care medicine tutorials from the surgical ICU at the University of Pennsylvania. They address such issues as respiratory failure, shock, sepsis and renal failure. Consider the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at Yale University School, if you’re seeking an academic career in the field of pediatric medicine. You can find a large number of emergency care resources from WebMD. You can also take a look at the National Center for Emergency Medicine Informatics for all types of emergency care information.

Look for emergency medicine jobs

Find emergency medicine jobs through one of the many medical field specific search engines that list job postings from around the country.
Try: Search for jobs by state from EDphysician.com. Choose a US or Canadian location to start your job search with MedHunters. Also, look at PracticeLink where you can find physician emergency medicine jobs by region, and Locum Tenens, where you’ll find numerous emergency medical shift work opportunities.

Join an emergency medicine affiliation

Join a critical care medicine group, society or association for their membership benefits. Joining one can offer you networking, conference and seminar opportunities as well as CME training.
Try: Become a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. You can join as a healthcare professional, a physician, an international physician, a young physician or in-training. Join the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, a democratic organization committed to the personal and professional well-being of each individual medical specialist. Become a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, where you can take an online membership orientation to immediately learn all of the benefits of membership. Consider joining or helping the National Emergency Medicine Association to make a positive impact on individuals in your own state, as well as, around the country.

Read up on emergency medicine

Find out the latest in emergency medicine care techniques as well as personal and professional stories from those in the field in one of the many critical care medicine journals.
Try: Check out the online journal Critical Care Medicine. Read a current or back issue of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in the online archive. Look at The Open Critical Care Medicine Journal to read online material or order print reprints. You can also read the current issue of The Internet Journal of Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine.

• For those just starting out in the emergency medicine field, find a mentor early on to follow, watch and learn from. For those experienced in the field, take someone under your wing to mentor and tutor. The friendship and the mutual respect will do both of your careers good.