The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) believes that the delivery of emergency care is best led by physicians with EM training, experience, and ABEM certification. While ABEM honors the contributions to emergency care by other providers, the path to become a nurse practitioner (NP) or physician assistant (PA) is not equivalent to the complex training required to become an ABEM-certified physician. An ABEM-certified physician should therefore lead team-based care in the emergency department.
To become certified by ABEM, physicians complete an undergraduate degree, four years of medical school, followed by an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education–accredited Emergency Medicine residency program. (This is five more clinical years of supervised training than is required of an NP or PA.) The physician must then pass a high-stakes, secure, written examination, and a rigorous oral examination to become ABEM certified. Physicians must also demonstrate that they are keeping up to date with key advances and meeting national standards in the field of Emergency Medicine to stay certified.
Minimally, indirect but real-time supervision by an ABEM-certified physician must be available in the emergency department. Additionally, the patient should always be afforded the choice and opportunity to speak with a supervising physician.
The entire statement is available here.