Emergency Medicine Physician

You are the first doctor to see the most critical patients – calm, fast, and trained for anything.

What this life looks like

When someone collapses, cannot breathe, is bleeding severely, or is unconscious, you are the doctor who is called. Emergency Medicine is the specialty of the unpredictable – you never know who is coming through the door next, and your job is to stabilize patients in life-threatening situations using whatever resources you have available. The Emergency Department is one of the most intense environments in medicine: fast-paced, high-pressure, and requiring the ability to assess and act quickly across every system in the body simultaneously. In Africa emergency medicine is a relatively young specialty but a rapidly growing one. Road traffic accidents, obstetric emergencies, trauma from violence, sudden infections, and cardiac and respiratory emergencies all arrive at emergency departments in vast numbers, often to under-staffed and under-resourced facilities. The emergency medicine physician who can work effectively in a resource-limited African context is among the most valuable doctors on the continent.

What she actually does

An Emergency Medicine Physician triages patients by urgency, assesses and stabilises life-threatening conditions including trauma, cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, stroke, poisoning, and obstetric emergencies, performs emergency procedures including intubation, defibrillation, and fracture stabilisation, coordinates with specialists for admitted patients, and makes rapid decisions under time pressure with incomplete information.

Where you can work

Sector	Places in Africa
Emergency departments in government and private hospitals at all levels	Groote Schuur Hospital Emergency Centre (South Africa), Lagos University Teaching Hospital A&E (Nigeria), Kenyatta National Hospital Casualty (Kenya), Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Emergency Unit (Ghana)
Trauma centres	Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital Trauma Unit (South Africa), Chris Hani Baragwanath Trauma Centre (South Africa), National Orthopaedic Hospital Lagos (Nigeria)
Disaster response and humanitarian medical teams	South African Medical Reserve Corps, MSF Emergency Response Teams across DRC, South Sudan and CAR, Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) medical teams
Pre-hospital emergency care organisations	Western Cape EMS (South Africa), Lagos State Ambulance Service (Nigeria), Kenya Red Cross Emergency Response, NAEMT Africa partner organisations
Academic emergency medicine departments	Division of Emergency Medicine UCT/Stellenbosch University (South Africa), University of Lagos Emergency Medicine Programme, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Emergency Medicine Training (Ghana)
Air ambulance and retrieval services	Netcare 911 Air Ambulance (South Africa), AMREF Flying Doctors (Kenya/East Africa), ER24 Air (South Africa)

Why it matters in Africa

Road traffic injuries are a leading cause of death across Africa, and the majority of deaths occur before patients reach hospital or within the first hour of arrival – the critical window where emergency care makes the difference. Many African hospitals still do not have functioning emergency departments staffed by trained emergency physicians. Establishing emergency medicine as a recognised specialty across Africa is one of the most urgent priorities in healthcare system strengthening.

Your pathway in

Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics at secondary school. Then MBBS or MBChB over five to six years, followed by housemanship. Emergency medicine residency through the Fellowship of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa, the West African College of Surgeons, or programmes available through the African Federation for Emergency Medicine. The specialty is being established across more African countries each year.

Skills you will need

Technical: Advanced life support, trauma assessment and management, airway management, emergency pharmacology, procedural skills including chest drainage and fracture stabilisation, ECG interpretation, and point-of-care ultrasound. Human: Rapid decision-making, composure under extreme pressure, the ability to communicate clearly with frightened patients and families, leadership of resuscitation teams, and the ability to set priorities when many critical patients arrive simultaneously. Digital tools: Emergency information systems, point-of-care diagnostic tools, trauma monitoring equipment, and digital triage systems.

A woman in this field

Prof. Heike Geduld

South Africa

South African emergency medicine physician and part of the very first class of emergency physicians to graduate in Africa. She served as Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University and is a founding member and Past President of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM), as well as immediate past-President of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa. She has taught emergency medicine in Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, and Egypt, and has consulted on emergency care systems and injury care for the World Health Organisation, co-authoring the WHO/ICRC Basic Emergency Care Course. In 2018 she was awarded the Fellowship of the Order of IFEM for her work in developing emergency medicine in Africa. She is also a founding member of the South African chapter of Women in Global Health.

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Take your first step

Emergency medicine rewards people who can stay calm under pressure and think clearly in chaos – start building those qualities now. Take a first aid course if one is available to you. Biology, Chemistry, and Physics are all relevant. Read about the African Federation for Emergency Medicine and the work being done to build emergency care across the continent. If you have access to a hospital, ask to spend time in the emergency department – even observing for a few hours will give you a clear picture of whether this environment excites or overwhelms you.