We could write about the negatives of EM until we're blue in the face, but if people don't believe it, it won't make a difference. The fact that 2,500 people are still going into it is proof the lies, the sales pitch, the swindle, are still working by and large.
But the facts remain the same. EM is a lie from the very name. Emergency Medicine is NOT emergency medicine. It's 90% something else. It should be renamed for what it is mostly, not for what it was supposed to be.
1) Lifestyle specialty - Lie
2) When you're off, you're off - Lie
3) Emergency Medicine is the medicine of emergencies - 90% Lie
4) You'll be the most rested of all specialties because days off - Lie
5) You won't be backstabbed and treated worse than dirt by administrators you'll never meet - Lie
It's biggest recruiting features and the reason most people go into it, are all false. Yet they still sell it that way, and enough bodies are showing up and buying in.
NO ONE should go into EM. No one. No EM grads, not foreign grads. NO ONE, until there is radical change focused on physician fairness, physician wellness and physician respect.
Until doctors are given carte blanche to rewrite the rules of the specialty, and administrators, regulators and step aside, NO ONE should.
They should tear up the textbooks and rewrite them. Start by taking the NAME off any textbook written by backstabbing EM physicians who testify against their own with testimony so bad they're sanctioned for it.
Entire chapters should be written about how you MUST do what administrators tell you or you'll be fired.
If the specialty was HONEST without it's recruits, honest with itself, at least that would be fair. But honest, they won't be. Because it would paint a picture so dark, so grim, so discouraging, they'd fear no one would every go into EM. Rather than take a stand, unionize, band together and fiercely use their leverage to make radical change for the better, they'd just rather lie.
Entire chapters should be written about you'll be depressed, groggy and snapping at your family when you're "off" because you worked till 7 am on your day "off." Jet-lag will be your life.
Entire chapters should be written about how your ED director will force/pressure/gaslight you into gaming the numbers of "door to doctor" times and 50 other metrics to please some administrator, while sick patients need you.
Entire chapters should be written explain how previous entire chapters should be ignored because "patients will demand you do X, Y, Z and you'll be fired if you don't 'please' the patients."
Entire chapters should be written on the fact that you'll be sued for NOT committing malpractice multiple times, for something you didn't do, that somebody else did or didn't do, no matter how defensive you practice medicine and that one of your colleges or bosses will make a big paycheck to ensure it happens.
All Emergency Medicine books should be retitled as "Mostly Data Entry & Corporate Profits Disguised as Urgent Care, with Some Emergencies" Seriously. I'm not joking. It's not okay to start lying already on THE COVER OF THE BOOK. Fix the specialty or RENAME IT!
Entire chapters should be written about using a computer on wheels, mouse, finger pad, clicking boxes, checking boxes, meaningful use, useless meaning, and data entry will be >50% of time spent.
Entire chapters should be written about how to pull yourself out of the inevitable psychosocial crisis the specialty will drive you to within 5 years or less through emotional exhaustion, while you're blamed for it by those that caused it.
Entire chapters should be written about being verbally abused by admitting doctors, consulting doctors, drunk/psychotic/violent patients 100 times to every 1 time you're thanked.
An entire chapter should be written on how the specialty was specifically designed so that you're trapped in it, with scarce exit plans. This was no accident, when EM was formed as a residency as opposed to a fellowship after IM, FM or peds. If it was a fellowship, then every EP would be able to easily move in and out of EM, based on working conditions, whereas residency is a one-way street without room to turn around or exit laterally).
But...but...but...NONE of that really matters even a bit, in comparison to the fact that chronic circadian rhythm dysphoria, and working nights, weekends and holidays takes such a big toll on a person's personal and family life, it's just not worth it when there are so many other choices less onerous. EVERYTHING pales in comparison to that fact that EM takes away one's ability to have a normal life. The impact of losing that, cannot be overstated.
