dr-exmedic.com

The March issue of Emergency Medical Services has a guest editorial, in which the authors “brainstorm” ideas to help EMS’ future as a profession; they clearly intend to generate discussion, and get a few ideas to discuss at an event to be held this summer.  They offer up some good ideas, such as actually pointing out that the exciting, “heroic” types of calls are a small percentage of what EMS providers actually do, which might lead to recruitment of people who are more likely to stay.  Not all of their ideas are so hot:

Specific considerations focusing on career paths might include incorporating EMS into other healthcare fields. For example, in order for a person to become an emergency physician, nurse, physicians’ assistant, etc., they would first have to spend a specified number of years of service as an EMS provider.

I’m a year shy of graduating with probably about $100k in loans, which will continue to accrue interest during the 3 years of my emergency medicine residency (and I’m fairly lucky; it’s not unheard of to graduate with $200k of debt).  Since we can’t force all medical students to become EMS providers before med school (not really useful for a pathologist, is it?), this requirement would have to go between med school and residency.  I can think of at least half a dozen reasons why this isn’t a good idea; here are some of the most important:

1. Interest accrual.  This is the most selfish of the reasons.
2. Experience that will have little to do with (and is at a lower level than) an emergency physician’s core responsibilities and duties; the same holds true for PA’s and nurses despite their lower levels of education and responsibility.
3. Fairness–no other medical specialty requires allied health experience, and the authors aren’t recommending it.
4. Delaying the entry of badly needed providers into the pipeline–throw “nursing shortage” or “doctor shortage” into your favorite search engine.

That being said, I still heavily advise pre-med students to get into some sort of health care position, be it EMT or nurse’s aide.  Volunteering at a hospital just isn’t the same in most places, since you’ll generally get stuck running the gift shop or playing gopher.

I know, I know, one of the rules of brainstorming is not to knock down any idea–that’s for later.  But this wasn’t an actual brainstorming session, it was a print article that was revised and edited.  These guys should probably be bright enough to not publish something that would leave other professions howling in laughter if the idea were presented to them.