Emergency services are services provided to a population to allow for acute medical care to be provided in the case of an emergency, and the director of emergency services is the person in charge of making sure that all emergency medical procedures are carried out efficiently and effectively. This exciting career in public health is just one of the many public health careers experiencing a boom in today’s modern age, and becoming a director of emergency services comes with a plethora of benefits.
On top of a substantial and comfortable salary, a person will experience a career that allows them to grow and progress professionally while experiencing job security and helping to protect their fellow man. This, as well as many other careers in public health, provides rewards for both personal achievement and financial security.
What Is A Director Of Emergency Medical Services?
In cases of public health emergencies, a director of emergency medical services is in charge of a very important job. Emergency medical services are any type of medical services performed on those suffering from acute illnesses or injuries which need immediate medical attention, and the director of this emergency medical team is in charge of overseeing all emergency medical practices performed by each member of the crew. This will include preparing for emergencies, providing employee training, and many other tasks to ensure that an emergency medical team is able to run smoothly in the case of a public health emergency.
A public health director of emergency medical services can be found completing a variety of regular tasks such as:
- Developing or creating new methods, procedures, and plans as they relate to public health emergency medical services
- Training emergencies and emergency workers in different methods of operation
- Overseeing quality control within a team of medical emergency responders
- Creating treatment protocols or plans to be used for a variety of different public health emergency situations
- Providing leadership to a group of paramedics and various emergency medical technicians
The procedures carried out by an emergency medical services team are orchestrated by a director of emergency medical services, and this type of public health professional is typically a physician who specializes in emergency care. A director of medical emergency services in a public health setting will prepare for many different worst-case scenarios in which a population of a region may require immediate medical attention for an illness or injury, and this is done through developing and teaching a variety of procedures and protocols as well as providing leadership to an emergency services team.
Education And Training
A director of emergency medical services is normally also a physician, which will mean a doctorate level of education is normally required to reach this professional level. The first step in obtaining a doctorate is first achieving a degree at a bachelor’s level. A bachelor’s degree in a pre-medicine related field will be earned through a 4 year undergraduate course, and these courses will prepare a person to attend medical school.
After a bachelor’s degree program is completed, a person will then attend a 4 year medical school. During a medical school program a person will spend their first 2 years focusing on different coursework related studies, and their final 2 years practicing medicine in a variety of clinical settings. Upon the completion of medical school a person may then go on to attend a fellowship or internship program to gain clinical medical experience.
Certifications are also available to physicians of different kinds, and those who wish to practice in a specialized field are encouraged to gain certification in the field they wish to practice in. These certifications may need to be renewed every so often through continued education to ensure that certification is able to be kept.
After practicing as a physician, and gaining a number of years of experience, a person may then go on to become a director of emergency medical services working for a public health group.
The bottom 10th percentile of directors of emergency medical services in terms of salary will make around $94,529 per year, while the top 10th percentile will earn around $151,098 per year. The demand for these types of public health professionals is expected to rise around 23% by the year 2022.
