The article I’m about to recommend is not for the faint of heart.
Alex Mohseni MD wrote a very pointed, compelling piece in a recent Emergency Medicine News called, “Why I Quit Emergency Medicine.” It has created quite a buzz in emergency medicine circles.
It’s painful, but a really great read. Here it is.
Check out the below, a great post called “We Are the Champions?!” written by Crispydoc (Dr. David Presser) on burnout in emergency medicine, a field that towers over the others in burnout statistics:
It’s official: a study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed that as of 2014, Emergency Medicine (EM) took the top slot for physician burnout (59%). Suck it, critical care (50%). In your face, OB/GYN (56%). We’re #1, we’re # …huh?
How did my beloved field of EM win the race to nowhere? When I was in medical school, the pioneering faculty insisted that EM’s reputation for early burnout was based on the fact that those docs who’d burnt out had trained in another field, couldn’t hack it in their chosen specialties, and ended up woefully underprepared to spend their careers in EM. As a medical student, I saw EM transform from Rodney Dangerfield disrespected to George Clooney sexy. A full 13% of my class at UCSF matched in EM. We smugly believed we knew what we were getting into, and we took for granted our ability to work as lifers.
Here’s a short, fun piece by an emergency medicine program director positing that being from a humble background might provide an advantage to those medical students and residents who choose emergency medicine.
I’ve recently heard from several residency applicants who are considering emergency medicine as a back up specialty for the coming Match. These candidates are interested in applying in their field of primary interest and using emergency medicine as a safety specialty. I would not recommend this strategy! Emergency medicine’s popularity has waxed and waned over the years, but currently it is pretty hot. It’s far from a back up.
For more information about emergency medicine candidacies and careers, take a look at my piece “Why Are Emergency Physicians Burning Out” on KevinMD.
Please take a look at my recent guest entry on the KevinMD blog exploring the disconnect between emergency medicine’s immense popularity in the Match and an Archives of Internal Medicine study documenting severe burnout among emergency physicians. (According to the research, emergency physicians experience burnout at a rate of more than three times that of the average doctor and more than anyone else inside or outside of the medical field.) Pre-meds and medical students will find useful information in my guest blog entry, as they consider their future fields and lifestyles.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
