I couldn't agree more - but am saddened by our percption of lack of
consultant provided training
Mr Patrick K Plunkett
Consultant/ Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine
Department of Emergency Medicine
St James's Hospital
Dublin 8
http://www.stjames.ie/
http://www.tcd.ie/Clinical_Medicine/
-----Original Message-----
From: Cliff Reid [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 May 2001 09:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cut legs n plans for 24hr emergency physicians
"However I do realise there are now many MRCP trained A&E specialists who
may not have either the interest or the aptitude in these areas (just as I
don't in many areas of medicine)."
Interest maybe, but aptitude? I agree with what you say, but this is surely
a reflection of specialist 'training' in A&E. I still get A&E colleagues
asking 'are you a physician or a surgeon?', even though I've got a CCST in
A&E medicine. The fact that our skills and knowledge at the end of 5 years
as an A&E SpR are assumed to depend on what we learned for our ENTRANCE
examinations is a sad indication that some of us spend our time as SpRs
re-inforcing old habits and maybe staying in our clinical comfort zones
(MRCP-ers avoiding difficult wounds and musculoskeletal problems, FRCS-ers
referring acute medical patients to the med SHO early, guys without critical
care experience thinking anaesthetic juniors might be better at
resuscitation). Training programs in A&E medicine should produce specialists
in emergency medicine who are the "experts in the initial management of any
illness or injury from minor to major" that Craig describes. I can count the
number of times in my SpR training that I had useful shop-floor training
from a consultant on the fingers of one foot. It's time that changed so that
we're judged by the letters 'FFAEM', rather than which Royal College
financially skinned us alive when we were SHOs.
Cliff Reid
EP, London
"Adrian Fogarty FRCS, FRCSI, FRCSEd(A&E), DA(UK)......sadly not a hint of
MRCP in sight!!!"
What Adrian, you mean you've never experienced the joy of spotting inverted
champagne bottle legs and diagnosing a disease you can do bugger all about?
Or excitedly awaited an anti-double stranded DNA result? How can you
POSSIBLY be a good A&E doctor? ;o)
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