The PEM Consultant

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What are the roles of a Consultant in PEM?

EM(PEM) consultants tend to work across the adult and paediatric areas of the ED. Some consultants (of either type) work solely in Paediatric Emergency Departments. Some Paed(PEM) consultant work in other areas too, such as the Paediatric Admissions Unit, or in General Paediatric Wards and Clinics. Some sample plans are shown below.

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In general, their role is to provide clinical ED sessions with senior input into paediatric patient care and ensuring appropriate discharge and hospital admission, along with management and leadership responsibilities for children in the ED.

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• Running the paediatric part of the Emergency Department – seeing emergency cases, and supervising junior staff and Emergency Nurse Practitioners

• Managerial responsibility for quality improvement, guidelines, department design and process for paediatric patients.

• Establishing audit and research activities within and between departments.

• Ensuring robust PEM teaching and training for all doctors and nurses within the department

• Coordination of paediatric resuscitation courses

• Liaison with other paediatric (medical, surgical, orthopaedic, critical care) departments in the hospital and the associated hospitals in the network

• Liaison with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

• Lead doctor for child protection within the ED

• ED review clinics in some departments

• Providing a consultant led Urgent Referral / Rapid Access clinics in some hospitals

• Emergency preparedness for a major incident involving children

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If I do PEM training, does that mean I have to work in a dedicated Paediatric ED as a Consultant?

Not necessarily. Where you work will depend on the configuration of the ED in whichever Trust employs you. See the sample job plans for the variation which can exist.

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If I do PEM training as a paediatrician, does that mean I can work in the adult ED?

No, only consultants on the Specialist Register for Emergency Medicine can practise adult emergency medicine.

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What are the opportunities for Pre-Hospital Care as a PEM trained consultant?

At the moment, there are few. Adults comprise 90% of major trauma so having such a selected skill set is not really viable, unless you can do both adults and children. However with the right experience, it is possible that with the advent of Major Trauma networks (regionally and supra-regionally) there may be an increasing role in the future.