Emergency Medicine Physicians
Health ScienceO*NET 29-1214.00United States
Make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. Provide immediate recognition, evaluation, care, stabilization, and disposition of patients.
- Median annual earnings
- $333,591
- Projected change
- +5.5%
- Typical education
- Doctoral degree or more
- Employment
- 38.22K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
96.6% of the workforce
Growing to 40.31K by 2035
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Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What emergency medicine physicians do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs and priority of treatment.
- Perform emergency resuscitations on patients.
- Perform such medical procedures as emergent cricothyrotomy, endotracheal intubation, and emergency thoracotomy.
- Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
- Stabilize patients in critical condition.
- Analyze records, examination information, or test results to diagnose medical conditions.
- Consult with hospitalists and other professionals, such as social workers, regarding patients' hospital admission, continued observation, transition of care, or discharge.
- Communicate likely outcomes of medical diseases or traumatic conditions to patients or their representatives.
- Conduct primary patient assessments that include information from prior medical care.
- Monitor patients' conditions, and reevaluate treatments, as necessary.
- Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, assistants, specialists, residents, and other medical staff.
- Select and prescribe medications to address patient needs.
- Collect and record patient information, such as medical history or examination results, in electronic or handwritten medical records.
- Discuss patients' treatment plans with physicians and other medical professionals.
- Identify factors that may affect patient management, such as age, gender, barriers to communication, and underlying disease.
- Assess patients' pain levels or sedation requirements.
- Refer patients to specialists or other practitioners.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $101,005
- 25th percentile
- $182,353
- 50th percentile
- $333,591
- 75th percentile
- $421,562
- 90th percentile
- $509,409
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $333,591 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+5.5%average or slower
202538,217 jobs
2035 projected40,308 jobs
2,091 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Doctoral degree or more
- 96.6%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 3.5%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Emergency Medicine Physicians19,172 postings
- 02Locum Tenens Emergency Medicine Physicians9,929 postings
- 03Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physicians732 postings
- 04Pulmonary Critical Care Physicians341 postings
- 05Critical Care Intensivists326 postings
- 06Pulmonology/Critical Care Physicians288 postings
- 07Locums Tenens236 postings
- 08Critical Care Intensivist Physicians219 postings
- 09Pediatric Intensivists205 postings
- 10Locum Tenens Critical Care Physicians200 postings
- 11Intensivists196 postings
- 12Critical Care Physicians173 postings
- 13Family Medicine Physicians147 postings
- 14Locum Tenens Pulmonology/Critical Care Physicians111 postings
- 15Pulmonology Physicians100 postings
- 16Nocturnists82 postings
- 17Advanced Practice Providers75 postings
- 18Emergency Medicine Clinical Pharmacists74 postings
- 19Critical Care/Trauma Physicians72 postings
- 20Urgent Care Physicians70 postings
Top employers
- 01Hayman Daugherty Associates3,167 postings
- 02CompHealth2,456 postings
- 03Weatherby Healthcare2,051 postings
- 04Team Health1,528 postings
- 05Vituity1,424 postings
- 06AMN Healthcare992 postings
- 07All Star HealthCare796 postings
- 08VISTA Staffing Solutions740 postings
- 09HCA Healthcare624 postings
- 10LocumTenens.com586 postings
- 11Aya Locums577 postings
- 12US Acute Care Solutions509 postings
- 13Wellnessworks498 postings
- 14Envision Physician Services486 postings
- 15Vohra Wound Physicians483 postings
- 16The Curare Group407 postings
- 17The Inline Group303 postings
- 18BAYADA Home Health Care295 postings
- 19Cross Country Healthcare294 postings
- 20Surgical Information Systems294 postings
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