EM Burnout??

[windsurfr]

I know this has been a popular topic in the past.... I have met a lot of older EM docs who are completely burned (med seekers, drunks, nights, etc.). Are there many EM docs who enjoy their work through retirement???

 

[DrQuinn]

I know plenty of EM docs who work all the way through retirement. Before med school, I worked in an ED as an orderly. I asked all the physicians there (they were all EM trained, mostly from Wake Forest)... if they planned on working in the ER or they would switch to a clinic or FP setting... uniformly they all said "No way... this is what I was trained in, this is what I love... I'm doing this until the end..."

There you go.
Q

 

[Iron Horse]

I imagine if they were all EM trained (as opposed to Internists or FPs) that they must have been fairly young (i.e. early in their careers) given that EM is a relatively new field. That said, it's easy to feel one way early in your career and quite differently once you have a number of years under your belt. I have yet to come across older ER docs, but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong ERs. :wink:

 

[trouta]

I dont think you can generalize. I worked with a couple of physicians who came in at the front end of the specialty. In their view, things are only getting better with all that we are learning.

 

[DrQuinn]

Actually the docs i talked to (this was 4 years ago), were in their late 40s early 50s, so they had been out 15 years or so.

I'm sure there is still an issue of EM burnout in EM trained physicians, but there are SOOO many opportunities that they can go into I don't think its that big a problem.

 

[droliver]

Talking to my ER collegues, I've been told that there have been some studies b/w the two different groups of ER physicians (EM trained vs. all other backgrounds) re. job satisfaction,burnout, etc.... Does anyone have any references to this they know about?