Working in A&E: 5 Pros and 5 Cons

Working in A&E: 5 Pros and 5 Cons

This page is written mainly for doctors (and medical students) – who are thinking of doing an A&E block (4 months) as part of  F1/F2 training, or a career in A&E. But, for other health professionals that are thinking about a career in A&E, there may be similar pros and cons.

A&E is not for everyone. Here goes.

5 Pros – why should I work in A&E?

1. Practice medicine and surgery. There are great first hand learning opportunities and a chance to get your hands dirty and do stuff
2. Senior supervision. There is usually excellent consultant and senior doctor cover on the shop floor; with whom you can always discuss anything you are unsure about. Hence there are also many chances to get your competencies signed off faster, as there are more on-hand tasks to be completed
3. Variety. There is a huge variety of patients and illnesses. No two shifts in the A&E are the same. In A&E, you will always be seeing something new, which means you will regularly face new challenges and learn new skills. You will also see the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to sort out that variety of patients. You will see first hand how this is used from a patient’s admission to their transfer/discharge in order to provide the best care
4. Length of training. This is one of the shorter careers from qualification to consultant (9 years is possible). Also, even if you have decided to eventually go into medicine, surgery, trauma and orthopaedics (T&O), obs and gynae (O&G) or paediatrics, you will invariably see patients in A&E, so its good to be able to see things from the A&E doctor perspective
5. You. If you are ‘do stuff now’ person, this may be the career for you.

5 Cons – why you may not want to work in A&E

Here is the list of cons.

1. The hours tend to be unsocial. There may be few shifts that start at 8 am. You may find yourself instead coming to work midday or in the late afternoon and staying until 10pm, or into the early hours of the next day – or night shifts. So if you are not a night owl, you may not like working in A&E. Your sleep pattern will often be out of whack because of the changing working hours
2. Social and family life. You may not have a chance to hang out with your friends, or study as much as you would like, because of the range of work hours, and the likelihood of feeling exhausted. Also alot of people are prone to snacking rather than eating proper meals with loved ones
3. Fast pace (and constant movement of patients). While most staff enjoy the fast-paced, multitasking work environment, others can find the constant movement draining. You need to be able to handle multiple duties at once and keep going without many chances to catch your breath – i.e. there is a lot going on at once. Excelling in such an environment requires focus and stamina – and a good pair of shoes!
4. Emotionally draining. In A&E, you are likely to encounter a lot of pain and tragedy – e.g. victims of child abuse, horrific accidents, and terrible violence. Seeing such things can be emotionally draining. And that’s doubly true when patients die before you can save them. While it is important to have empathy for your patients, the best A&E staff need the ability to remain slightly detached and emotionally healthy, even in the face of other people’s suffering
5. Finance. And there is near to no private practice as a consultant. But you can boost your salary by working at large events where injuries or illnesses occur (festivals, car racing etc) or doing medicolegal work.

Summary

We have described working in A&E, and its pros and cons. We hope you have learnt something.