Careers Portal

Emergency Medicine

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First Year Trainee Headcount*
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Advanced Trainee Headcount*
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New College Fellow Headcount*
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Specialist Headcount*
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Median Age*
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Headcount Over 65 Years Old*
*WA figures sourced from NHWDS & MET
An emergency medicine physician works in emergency situations across both physical and behavioural areas. They specialise in the diagnosis and management of acutely ill patients who present to the emergency department.
 
The work is typically fast paced, ever changing and reliance and good teamwork across the department is key.
 

As an emergency physician you can do a variety of subspecialties. Some examples of subspecialties include retrieval, toxicology, trauma, and event medicine. You can also undertake dual training in paediatric emergency medicine and complete compulsory placements in anaesthetics and/or intensive care medicine.

 


FULL PANEL RECORDING


As an emergency medicine physician, you need to be able to: 

  • Think fast and work with ongoing interruptions
  • See the big picture while also being alert to the smallest details 
  • Lead a team of health professionals to provide urgent patient care 
  • Have a broad knowledge-base of medicine including anatomy, pathology, physiology and pharmacology 
  • Enjoy teamwork 
  • Have excellent interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence to deal with all patients
  • Be decisive
  • Work night shifts and non-office hours.

A day in the ED is very variable and this depends on where you work. At the end of the day you can hand over your patients and you can go home. You don’t have any ongoing commitments.

You can work anywhere in the world and you can combine your career with one of your hobbies for example if you like skiing you can work as a ski doctor in Queenstown. You do need to enjoy shiftwork because this is what you’re signing up for.


The Australian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Training Program is a minimum five-year training program (full-time FTE) which can be undertaken on a full-time or part-time basis. To be eligible to apply for selection into ACEM training, you must be in at least your third postgraduate year. There are other eligibility criteria that can be found on the ACEM website. 
 
You have 12 years in total to complete the training program and there’s a generous parental leave policy you can access.
 
You never know what’s going to come through the door of the Emergency Department, so the College encourages up to 18 months of non-ED terms. You do need to do six months of critical care which can either be ICU or anaesthetics.
 
You get to decide your own placements which allows you to have the flexibility to move around WA, interstate, or Aotearoa New Zealand. You can even go overseas and complete some training, and this can count towards your training so you’re getting more experience and variety.
 
There are directors of emergency medicine training at each site who will guide you through the training and assessments. There are four exams in total throughout the program.
 
In your third postgraduate year, a 6-month (FTE) emergency medicine term is required to meet eligibility for selection. Your supervising emergency specialists will act as your referees for your college application. 
 
There is no interview and there is no quota so if you meet the standard you’re in. You begin training at the start of the medical training year which is in February.
 
All eligibility requirements must be met by the time of the application’s closing date – Round 1 is mid-year and Round 2 is around October. You can apply in either round, there’s no difference and it won’t make any difference to your start date. You’ll always start in February the following year.
 

Emergency physicians can have a very diverse and flexible career. Emergency physicians can work in public EDs, private EDs, management roles, administration, education roles, retrieval medicine, rural and remote medicine and consultancy. Emergency physicians can work in metropolitan or rural areas with the majority working in metropolitan areas. 
 
N.B. Career prospects are dependent on both the supply of specialists and the projected future demand for services provided by medical specialists (including general practitioners). The complex interplay of supply and demand is currently being modelled at both a state and national level and will be included when it's available.