How to Become an ER Doctor

Emergency medicine has been a specialty for just a few years, but it is rapidly becoming one of the most important. Emergency room doctors must be quick-witted and knowledgeable in all areas of medicine. They never know what they will see during a work shift.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Preparing for a Medical Career

1. Investigate medicine as a career. Be sure that this is a profession that you feel passionately about and are willing to work long hours for.

2. Discuss a medical career with counselors at your high school as well as advisors at colleges and universities where you plan to apply.

3. Find out what college courses are a prerequisite for medical school. Include them in your 4-year college curriculum.

4. Take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

5. Investigate medical schools. Include schools of osteopathic medicine. Doctors of osteopathy (DOs) have all the same rights and privileges as doctors of medicine (MDs).

6. In your senior year of college, apply for admission to the medical school of your choice and secure funding.

Becoming an Emergency Room Doctor

7. Complete the third year clinical rotations before choosing a specialty.

8. Investigate emergency medicine at the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

9. Take extra electives working the emergency room, perhaps in the subspecialties of emergency medicine/pediatrics, emergency medicine/internal medicine or emergency medicine/critical care.

10. Decide what kind of residency you want to enter. There are 3-, 4-, and 5-year training programs. The 5-year programs lead to board certification in two specialties; for example, family practice and emergency room medicine.

11. Participate in the residency matching program.

12. Finish your residency.

13. Firm up job opportunities early in the next to last and last years of your residency.

14. Comply with the requirements for board certification. These requirements are defined by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Tips & Warnings

• While in training, it is possible to develop a network that will assist you in securing employment. This network should include attending physicians, residents that preceded you in the training program and contacts gained through conferences and meetings.

Who Can Help Sponsored

• Earn your degree from industry experts at University of Phoenix. Take the next step in your career.