Needs and Challenges of the Presence of Emergency Medicine Specialists in an Educational Hospital; a Qualitative Study

Introduction: Emergency medicine specialty has been established in Iran since 2001 due to the need to create a specialized field for responding to patients' vital needs. Since this is a young field and challenges have arisen since the creation of this field, we have studied the importance, needs and challenges of emergency medicine specialists being available in a teaching hospital. Methods: This study was a qualitative one. In this study, purposeful sampling was performed among experienced experts in the field of emergency medicine, the founders of this field, and authorities of the healthcare system. The mentioned groups were interviewed in a semi-structured manner and the sample size was determined via data saturation. Finally, the important codes were selected in groups and subgroups and then analyzed. Results: In this study, after interviewing 12 experts in the field of emergency medicine, information saturation was reached. One of the most important needs for establishing emergency medicine specialty was found to be the need for an expert with a comprehensive view for treatment of critical patients and a comprehensive management for emergency department; and the greatest challenges were financial interference with other disciplines and interference in the area of joint work. Conclusion: Considering the evaluations of the present study and more than 2 million patients and injured people presenting to the emergency department each month, the presence of an emergency medicine specialist in educational hospitals is recommended.