Gastroenterology Job Description

• Gastroenterology"Dermat¨®loga" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Daquella manera (Daniel Lobo) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

Salary and Data

• Gastroenterologists earn an average annual salary of $161,000, according to Indeed.com. This is approximately 154 percent higher that the average salary for all occupations collectively. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of physicians was expected to grow 14 percent from 2006 to 2016.
  
  

Nature of the Work

• Gastroenterologists diagnose digestive system illnesses and prescribe and administer treatment for people suffering from these kinds of conditions. Gastroenterologists work with nurses, medical technologists and administrative personnel daily. The doctor must come into direct contact with human fluids and secretions as well as tissue. The hours are long, and most doctors must work on rotating on-call status. They must go to work when ever they are called no matter the time of day or night.
  
  

Requirements

• Gastroenterology jobs require the completion of eight years of undergraduate and medical school, a one-year internship and a three-year residency. The residency is typically in internal medicine. After the initial residency, Gastroenterology candidates must go through a two-year gastroenterology residency. Most gastroenterologists have a biology or chemistry undergraduate degrees prior to entering medical school. Their education focuses on a pre-medical curriculum.
  
  

Job Duties

• The gastroenterologist provides patients medical advice and prescribes treatments. Gastroenterologists are responsible for educating his patients on the proper ways to live with disorders. The gastroenterologist is generally responsible for communicating all of the patients' medical information to the appropriate general practitioner or primary care physician.
  
  

Secondary Job Duties

• Gastroenterologists are business professionals. Since many doctors are in private practice, they must be able to manage their practices. Doctors often open a single practice office or join a larger multi-physician office. The doctor may be responsible for interviewing and hiring new staffing training. Most large practices also have a physicians assistant or nurse manager.