Emergency Medicine is a very exciting and progressive specialty, and its practice and practitioners are very different today to the founding “casualty surgeons” of yesteryear. As trainees, we strive to develop expertise in the immediate management of acute illnesses and injuries of any kind, across all age groups, enabling us to resuscitate and perform life-saving interventions that may not be immediately available from other specialists. A huge spectrum of undifferentiated presentations require us to have a sound understanding of any common or life-threatening condition that comes through our doors. We aim to provide safe, effective and immediate clinical management in a busy and frequently pressured environment.

EMTA is the national organisation that represents trainees in Emergency Medicine. Its main function is to encourage active involvement of all trainees to shape the development of Emergency Medicine as a specialty and improve their own training experience. It provides the structure to highlight issues specific to trainees and represent trainees’ views to the College of Emergency Medicine and a variety of other agencies.

Any trainee who is a member of the College may join EMTA. Trainees at ST3 and above are entitled to full membership. Other trainees, students and overseas doctors may be affiliate members and retain all the benefits of membership except voting rights. To join, you must become a member of the College of Emergency Medicine.

EMTA is partially funded and enthusiastically supported by the College of Emergency Medicine (and previously the British Association of Emergency Medicine). While there is no fee for membership for EMTA, they must be members of College. 

We are very fortunate to be part of the College of Emergency Medicine. The college is very young compared to most medical colleges, and trainees have an opportunity to genuinely influence the rapid development and evolution of our specialty. To do this, the EMTA executive needs your input, your feedback & your involvement. The College really values and actively seeks the opinion and contributions made by the trainees.

Elected members provide representation to all the committees and the council of the College of Emergency Medicine, as well as a variety of external bodies. Trainee representatives attend all meetings of the Training Standards committee, the Education & Examinations committee, and the Research & Publications committee among others.

The EMTA annual conference is held in the autumn, covering both clinical Emergency Medicine and trainees' issues. It is the perfect opportunity to get involved if you haven't done so already. News is currently disseminated via the EMTA Newsletter and the Supplement to the Emergency Medicine Journal (EMJ).

To become involved in EMTA, contact the President, any one of the executive board or your regional representative (usually the STC rep), via the college website. You do not have to take on a major role or give up a huge amount of time; there are always projects that need the assistance of someone with an interest in Emergency Medicine, and these can provide great experience for any trainee at any level.

EMTA cannot achieve anything without the involvement of its membership. Please get involved, even if only by letting us know your views. Collectively we can build the speciality we want, one of which we can be proud.

We hope that the EMTA website will prove to be a valuable resource for anyone interested in training in Emergency Medicine. We hope to include guidance on all aspects of training, and welcome any suggestions, feedback or contributions to the site content. The shared resources section of the combined website promises to be a great resource for trainees and educators, and we'd encourage anyone with a presentation, CTR, guideline summary or audit to share their hard work with others.

It is essential that members keep their details up-to-date on the website, so that they receive e-mail updates on training / EM news. To do this, login, then go to ADMIN > Change My Details. EMTA will disseminate information via members' email contact details, via the EMJ Supplement, and in the NEWS and MEMBERS' SECTION (you need to log in to see this).

If you have anything to contribute, or are having trouble locating any information you think should be included here, do not hesitate to let us know.

EMTA Website Administrator