Emergency medicine

Emergency Medicine is a specialty of medicine. A specialty is a special part of medicine where a doctor may have more knowledge. Examples of specialities are Pediatrics (doctors who care for children), Geriatrics (doctors who care for elderly peopleHam, R. J. (2007). Primary care geriatrics: a case-based approach. Elsevier Health Sciences.), and Cardiology (doctors who know more about the heart).

Emergency Medicine (abbreviation EM) is sometimes also called Accident and Emergency Medicine (AEM).Guly, H. (2005). A History of Accident and Emergency Medicine, 1948-2004 (p. 4). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

EM doctors specialize in treating diseases and injuries that need immediate care. These kind of diseases or injuries are called emergencies. If they are not helped quickly, the person may become more sick or even die.

Doctors that specialize in EM usually work in Emergency Departments. This is also called a casualty department or Emergency room. These are places in hospitals where people go if they have an emergency. They may have a red cross or red letters on the sign to show it is the Emergency Department. This way, even people who cannot read know where to go. A separate unit of the hospital is Intensive Care, which is for less than life threatening but still serious emergencies. 

Doctors who specialize in EM must know about all of the different aspects of medicine to some level, but not quite as much as a specialist would. They treat people of all ages. They treat both men and women. They must know how to treat any kind of emergency. But they may not know quite as much about the treatments of some diseases or injury, because they are too specialized or serious.

Many people go to the Emergency Department with problems that are not emergencies. So EM doctors must also know  about how to treat non-emergencies.

 Related pages 
Emergency medical services
First aid
References