It takes nerves of steel to treat patients in a do or die situation. If you are a doctor and considering emergency medicine physician jobs, it is important to know this. And if you are not a doctor yet but considering it and are unsure about medical specialties, it is important to know what emergency medicine really is.

A doctor who concentrates on emergency medicine must focus on the present, the here and now. He must focus on being able to make quick and urgent decisions in regarding the actions to take with a patient to prevent death as well as possibility to avoid further disabilities. Emergency medicine physician jobs are often found on the emergency room floor of a hospital, directing nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel in extremely tense conditions.

In the role of an emergency medical physician, you must be able to quickly recognize the problem at hand, evaluate the condition, and devise a plan of care. You must also be able to determine the best course of action needed to stabilize a patient, regardless of age from babies to seniors. This requires excellent knowledge of medications and dosages as well as how far you could take a treatment with certain patients based on their health history, age and size. In emergency medicine physician jobs, you would have to react to a number of different medical emergencies from gunshot victims to accident victims to heart attacks or anaphylactic patients. You really have no idea of what the next ambulance will bring into the emergency room that you would have to treat.

In the course of your search, you may discover that there are different types of emergency medicine physician jobs. Five primary sub specialties exist in emergency medicine: sports, palliative and hospice, pediatric, toxicology and hyperbaric. Sports medicine deals with the injuries sustained through athletic pursuits while the palliative and hospice specialty deals with terminally ill patients. Pediatric medicine specializes in babies and children while toxicology deals with emergencies stemming from poisoning due to toxic exposure or drugs. Hyperbaric medicine covers underwater pursuits such as diving accidents and cases of decompression illness where divers come up to fast from deep water.

Looking for emergency medicine physician jobs, you should have your residency training in emergency medicine for at least three years. If you choose one of the five sub specialties, you will likely need at least two years of additional training in that area. Due to the stress of emergency medicine, doctors are well-paid in this arena. After establishing yourself and gaining some experience in emergency medicine, you could earn easily over $150,000 a year. Some areas of the country, the average salary for emergency medicine physician jobs starts at over $200,000.

Because medical emergencies happen at any time of day or night, emergency medicine physician jobs are akin to shift work. There could be anywhere from 2 to 4 different shifts per day for doctors in emergency medicine due to the long hours and high stress of the job. Not only could where you work be a factor in your job search but also when you work. As you can see, there are a number of factors which could influence your job search in the emergency medicine arena.