My impression of EM thus far has been that physicians are "okay" with their jobs but the pay and time off are what really make it worth it. When you guys say you love your jobs, do you mean you enjoy the actual door to door work, or the lifestyle it can afford? Thanks so much.
-M2
All kidding aside, here's my opinion which most on this board have already heard ad nauseum, as someone who's been pre-med, then a pre-EM med student, EM resident, EM attending for almost 10 years, and now as a an EM physician who no longer works in the ED, but has transitioned to a slower-paced lower-stress EM-Subspecialty. I've seen EM from nearly every vantage point.
The pay-
The pay in EM, is very good. I will not argue with that. On a per/hour basis, it's very good. Let's move on.
The "lifestyle"-
EM does not afford any "lifestyle." There is no "cushy lifestyle" involved. The 32 hr work week did not evolve as a bunch of stoners who found a way to trick the medical world into allowing a subset of doctors to max chill and party all the time. It evolved as an adaptation to the physical and psychological toll EM takes on people due to the acuity, non-stop pace and mood-altering circadian rhythm changes when attempting to work the typical 40 hr work week. 1 hour worked in EM = 1.5 hr doing anything else. Your 32 hr EM work week will not be a 32 hr work week, it will equate to a 48 hr toll taken on your mind and body, or more. Physical and emotional exhaustion will spill over into so called "free time" like it does
not in any other 9 am - 5 pm day job, where you're not doing death notifications, and seeing people die and cry, and jet-lagging back and forth between night and day shifts.
The work is challenging, can be rewarding at times, but can also be very hard and exhausting at times. That being said, if you live the work and feel it's a calling for you, it can be very good for certain people. Go into it because you've been suckered into thinking it's going to be easy, and you're not going to bust your tail as hard or harder than any other specialty, you may be disappointed.
Again, I think this myth will live forever like that of Big Foot, Eternal Youth and pots of gold at the end of rainbows, so I'm ALMOST to the point of just not caring enough to dispel it for anyone anymore, especially considering doing so brings more trolling than posting the feel good crap lots of people want to hear.
EM is not a lifestyle specialty. 32 hr work weeks ARE NOT EQUIVALENT to what non-EM physicians know and think of a 32 hr work weeks to be.
If you want a cush, low stress, easy specialty DO NOT DO EM. Do a 9-5 Mon-Fri specialty, with no nights, weekends, holidays and little or no call. Only do EM if you want to work very, hard and know what you're getting into.
Again, the "the 15 shift per month thing" in EM is not for the sake of having 15 shifts off each month. It's because you absolutely have to have 15 days off per month to make the 32 hr/wk as tolerable as 48 hr/wk would be so any other specialty or any other profession. It's just true. Trust me. It's true.
I'm not saying EM is bad. I'm not saying it's good, or in between. It's great for certain people, and not so great for others. It also can be better or worse for certain people at different times in their life, also. It just is what it is. It's not what most wide eyed pre-med and medical student think it is, in my opinion.
