Hey everyone, Justin here. Uh oh, better get him to a hospital, stat.
Any fans of medical shows here? You know, like Chicago Med or Grey's Anatomy.
Maybe you think you could do that too.
If so, stay tuned as we find out what working in an emergency room is really like.
An injured patient grimly clinging to life, while paramedics rush them into the emergency
room. We've seen it so many times before on tv and movies. In real life, it's not always that
way. Dr. Jonathan McGee is an associate program director at Christiana care hospital in Delaware.
He tried teaching before becoming an emergency physician. I ended up actually graduating with
a - you know, graduating college with a degree in biology, but ended up teaching
both middle school and high school for about five years. That teaching experience also proves very
useful in his current position. As associate program director, he splits his time between
clinical work and teaching and supervising residents. A resident is a physician who is out of
medical school and is now receiving training in a specialized area, like emergency medicine. We have
dedicated didactic days, you know, every Thursday and Friday. So you know, part of my job is just
what it was way back when I was teaching school. So it's good. It's come full circle a bit, so.
Doctors Zachariah Brown and Jessica Beadle are two residents who work with Dr. McGee.
Like Dr. McGee, Dr. Brown also thought about becoming a teacher.
And so I was thinking about, maybe I'll just be a teacher, do a science teacher, do something
along those lines in like high school. But then the more and more that I looked into medicine,
I was like oh, I'm going to go for this. Dr. Beadle has been interested in health sciences
since high school. That interest grew in college, where she also learned about its challenges.
I think the application process, it can be pretty daunting, having to apply to a lot of
different medical schools. Because the acceptance rate isn't, you know - it's pretty competitive.
The pathway to becoming, you know, an attending physician, which is kind of
the end result of all of this education and everything, is you go to undergraduate,
get your degree, and then you go to medical school, and then you start residency.
So intern year is essentially the beginning of residency. It's like starting the whole
application process again. I think this one has a little bit more nerves involved, because it's what
you're doing for the rest of your life. Then comes the interview process, where a candidate may have
to travel to many different hospitals all across the country in order to continue their training in
a specific branch of medicine. This can be costly, time-consuming, and stressful. Usually candidates
have to pay for their own travel, lodging, and meals. But it's also an important step
in order to ensure that the applicants and the hospital are a good fit for each other.
At the end of all of this, I'll be board certified in emergency medicine, and he'll be like double
board certified in emergency medicine and also family medicine. They do rotations in other
departments connected to emergency work, such as the ICU. As you medical show fans probably know,
that stands for intensive care unit. But emergency medicine has a special place in the residents'
hearts. And for me, once I did my emergency medicine rotation, I knew that that's what
I wanted to do because I really liked being there and then the the shifts went by very quickly. And
I was excited to come into work, and I think that's a good time when you're in medical school,
that that's going to be the right path for you. So emergency medicine I think is a very
interesting aspect of medicine, because you're dealing with the critically ill patients. But you
really have to think. I think I like that aspect that you're kind of a little bit of a detective,
and trying to figure out what's going on with the patients. Dr. McGee explained the process
that all residents have to go through. You know, what they do in terms of their progression through
residency is what's called sort of graduated - basically responsibility. So you know, as
an intern they're heavily supervised, and then as a second, third, fourth, and fifth year, they're
sort of less supervised. You know, they have a little bit more autonomy and a little bit more
freedom to kind of do the things that they need to do and and potentially want to do for patients.
Residents receive a training license through the state and hospital system.
This training license allows them to practice medicine under supervision within that state.
If they wanted to practice in a different state, they would have to apply for a new license there.
Interns and residents are usually funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or
CMS. According to ZipRecruiter, as of September 2021, the majority of CMS teaching residents
annual salaries falls somewhere between $25,500 and $65,000. In Delaware, it's somewhere in the
middle. $45,000 according to Dr. McGee. With time though, that number could jump up significantly.
Generally here on the east coast, as a starting emergency medicine provider, you could expect
to make maybe anywhere from $250,000 to $300,000 a year. Which, you know, for a new graduate is
comparatively - you know, making 45 and then jumping somewhere to 250 or 300
is a nice little jump. A physician's malpractice insurance may be covered
at least in part by the group or hospital they work for. But not always. Sometimes your salary
might be a little higher, but it's a little bit higher because they expect you to go out
and get your own malpractice insurance. Working in a hospital, especially in an emergency room,
can be stressful. I would have to agree. I think the biggest thing would probably be going with
the flow. Because again, things can change very quickly in the emergency department. I know that
that's a big risk that a lot of people think about is burnout, and it's it's pretty high in
medicine in general, and particularly in emergency medicine because of how fast-paced things are.
At Christiana, they offer time off and wellness programs to help prevent burnout.
But nothing could have prepared the staff for the sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And then there was a lot of confusion. It's a brand new thing that's going on.
There's new research that's constantly being made about it, and so you're trying to adapt and
basically keep up with the new research as well. Changes had to be made to the hospital's
procedures as more was learned about COVID. Those changes extended into the resident's home lives.
I'd take off my shoes. I put them in my trunk of my car, and then immediately when I'd get home,
I'd let her know, hey I'm coming home. And so then I just take off all my scrubs, put them
directly into the washing machine, and then usually I'd jump into the shower too
as well right after that. Just making sure, you know, it was scary because you don't want
to get your family sick. Like obviously there's risks when you're going into medicine, but the
worst thing, you know, with all these people that we were seeing kind of dying around us,
we didn't want to make our family sick. And I think a lot of people in the healthcare community
felt the same way and kind of were taking those similar precautions. There's danger
and risk involved in emergency medicine, but there's also great fulfillment as well.
It's extremely rewarding. I really like talking to patients, and
when they're in the emergency department, it's one of the most kind of vulnerable times of their
lives for a lot of people. And so it's a privilege to take care of people when they are, you know,
looking for help and when they don't necessarily know what to do. If you want to help with the ER
but not necessarily as a physician, Dr. Brown suggests these jobs. There's a clerk who does
the big thing with answering the phone calls. So she's part of the team that helps. There's
the patient techs who are involved in transporting the patients, as well as making sure with the room
assignments. Some emergency departments also have medical scribes that work with
the actual doctor themselves, and they write the notes as the day and the shift is going on.
Some final thoughts on a career in medicine. If you're interested in medicine, definitely try to
get involved in things early on. Like obviously in high school, if you want to try to do some
volunteering in the hospital, that's always a good start. Focusing on your grades is a big thing.
Even if your grades aren't so great, that's not necessarily a deal breaker. You can still
become a doctor. Just because you got bad grades in high school doesn't mean you can't get there.
Because I have a friend that went through that path. So
don't lose hope if you're not doing well in high school. I don't expect anybody in
high school to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I mean, I certainly didn't.
But at the same time, like if you know that medicine is something you clearly want to do,
I mean, there are obviously some very clear-cut pathways sort of ascribed by various colleges and
universities throughout the country that that will sort of put you in the right direction.
A lot of food for thought, even if you don't go down this specific career path. Thank you,
doctors McGee, Brown, and Beadle for your insight into working in an emergency room.