Each year, ACEP’s Council elects new leaders for the College at its meeting. The Council, which represents all 53 chapters, 40 sections of membership, the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors, the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, will elect four members to the ACEP Board of Directors when it meets in October, along with a new President-Elect, Council Speaker and Council Vice Speaker. 

Last month, we learned about the emergency physicians running for the Board. This month, let’s meet the candidates for President-Elect, Council Speaker, and Council Vice Speaker. 

President-Elect

The candidates for ACEP President-Elect responded to this prompt:

What new thoughts do you have in balancing board certified emergency physician

workforce distribution gaps and safe scope of practice for non-physicians?

Jeffrey M. Goodloe, MD, FACEP 

Current Professional Positions: Attending emergency physician, Hillcrest Medical Center Emergency Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma; professor of emergency medicine, EMS section chief, and director, Oklahoma Center for Prehospital & Disaster Medicine, University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, Tulsa; chief medical officer, medical control board, EMS System for Metropolitan Oklahoma City & Tulsa; medical director, Oklahoma Highway Patrol; medical director, Tulsa Community College EMS Education Programs

Internships and Residency: Emergency medicine residency, Methodist Hospital of Indiana/Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis; EMS fellowship, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

Medical Degree: MD, Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1995)

Response

Advances often come through focusing on executing fundamental actions particularly well. Coach John Wooden was famous for focusing on the fundamentals, sometimes called “little things.” When those same fundamentals done right achieve great success, they aren’t little at all. How does that apply to the role of the board certified emergency physician? Fundamentally, I believe every patient coming to an emergency department is best served by care delivered by board certified emergency physicians. Period.

So, to that end, I don’t believe there is a “balance” when it comes to board certified emergency physician anything and scope of practice for non-physicians anything. If that sounds distinctly definitive, then point purposefully made.

Does this lack of balance I promote equate to no role(s) for non-physicians in an emergency department? Considering I’ve worked with numerous physician assistants and nurse practitioners in emergency departments over my 25 years post-residency, you may correctly surmise I have found successful inclusion, which by my definition “successful” includes safety for all involved, of physician assistants and/or nurse practitioners on a physician-led team in an emergency department. Did I bold type “physician-led” in that last sentence? Good. Another point purposefully made.