Approved Fellowships Prepare Family Physicians to Lead Rural EDs
A current shortage of qualified and board certified EM physicians means that many emergency facilities, particularly in rural areas, are facing staffing challenges. Doctors who completed residencies in specialties other than EM, especially doctors who specialize in family medicine, step in to fill the gap for communities that would have otherwise lacked adequate emergency care.
A particularly noteworthy development has been the rise of fellowship programs that provide qualified family medicine physicians the opportunity to gain supervised training in EM. With a deeper knowledge of emergency medicine, graduate fellows strengthen the emergency care safety net in underserved communities, whether rural or urban. That these fellowship programs are a pathway to board certification in EM by the ABPS only makes them more critical. That’s because EM certification with the ABPS confers benefits not only to their careers, but to patients and the medical community on a whole.
Recognizing that EM is a highly sought-after specialty, the American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.®, the governing body of the American Board of Physician Specialties ® (ABPS), approves fellowship programs that provide EM training to qualified family medicine physicians.
Certification in EM by the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM), a Member Board of the ABPS, serves as a verifiable mark of distinction – an indicator of a doctor’s depth of knowledge and demonstrated expertise. Physicians who earn BCEM certification have displayed, through performance and rigorous testing, mastery of the core competencies necessary to provide the best emergency department care possible. It’s no wonder that medical leaders across the country prioritize the hiring of BCEM-certified physicians for their emergency departments. With a BCEM-certified physician on staff, a facility delivers a clear message about its strong credentials, which helps to establish and maintain the community’s trust in the facility and its medical staff. Hence, by displaying commitment to patient care beyond fellowship programs, graduate fellows who earn a certification from the ABPS position themselves as superior candidates for employment with both rural and urban emergency departments.
If you are a program director of a family medicine fellowship in EM and are interested in having your program approved by the AAPS, please contact us today.