Everybody has been saying this/predicting this since the workforce study came out, and this last year effectively proved it with the caliber of students who filled all those empty positions.
The real question is: what are you gonna do about it?
If you're a medical student: simple, don't go into EM, full stop
If you're an EM resident: truly consider whether you'll be happy doing a fellowship that will get you out of the ED (CCM, Pain, Palliative etc), or if you're really early in your training just eat the time already spent in EM residency and transition to a different specialty (gas, IM, FM etc). OR be one of the rare human beings that can thrive in this specialty, which comes down to the next step:
If you're already an EM doc: find/keep a sane SDG-type job - change jobs NOW before the next 2 years as I predict that's when the pendulum on the job market will have fully swung back, with all desirable jobs locked up. Become FI, and be agile/mobile if your current situation isn't tenable long-term. Alternatively, sack up and take some risk, transition to an entrepreneurial or other venture, or consider doing some other type of low-barrier to entry 9-5 medicine (occ med, addiction, wound care, concierge, whatever). Build that business up, throw in some sweat equity, and eventually after a few years ideally you've re-captured your EM income but with a much better lifestyle.
That's really it. Of course just like the advice to "lose weight" it's simple, but can be incredibly difficult. As we've discussed many times before, the biggest hurdle is giving up the relatively nice EM salary... it's a massive opportunity cost to leave EM. But ultimately if it's your sanity and happiness at stake, well then the decision should be easy.
Either **** or get off the pot - the time is NOW because it's going to get a lot worse.
Proud of you Fox.
