This is exactly how I felt as a PGY-1. Fast foreword 7 or 8 years, after being buried under a non-stop Niagara Falls of high-speed, non-stop, pressure-cooked, variety circus of chaos while chronically jet-lagged, I remember saying to myself, “I’d give anything right now to be bored.” I got to the point I remember telling friends, “I’d lay brick 40 hours per week if I could do it and keep my salary.” EM got to the point where the thought of predictable and routine manual labor started to feel comforting.
Fast forward another 7 or 8 years, and I’m much happier doing something that I absolutely 100% would have rejected as “too boring,” 20 years before.
OMG.
So much this, and I'm only 10 years out.
The number-one cause of burnout is....
the patient.
...
Seriously, when the "Karen" meme became a thing, I wanted to kick myself in the ass for not having already thought of it.
There is no more "Emergency Medicine" unless you work in a high-volume, high-acuity environment, or a low-volume, critical access environment.
Everything else is just "Hospital Customer Service" and "Would you like a CT with that, ma'am?"
Its funny; this actually happened to me a week or two ago:
2:41 AM.
66 year old fat male, obvious vasculopath. I can see the CABG scar from across the department.
Chest pain. surPRISE!
I walk in the room.
"Hello, Mister Roberts, I'm RustedFox. I'm here to help. Hello, Mrs.Roberts. I'm going to take excellent care of your husband."
(I actually said that nonsense, because I'm "Customer-Service-Centric".
Mrs. Roberts threw a cellphone in my face without even returning a greeting.
"Heeeah! Befourah you do ANYTHING to MY HUSBAND, you've gonna talk with our daughter in NURSING SCHOOL in CONNECTICUT."
I'm sorry madam, that's against policy. I'm here to help. I -
"Nope! I want another dawktah. Get another one! (there is not one available)
Then get your supervisah!"
PLUS, there was the shift last week where the day before I would have to come in two hours early because "we have no PA coverage".
Oh, this is MY fault, now?
You
could get PA coverage.
You just don't want to
pay to incentivize PA coverage. We have plenty. A simple shift bonus would cover the shift. But instead; administration's solution was "just whip the galley slaves harder".
No respect.
Not from patients.
Not from families.
Not from administration.
Its no longer EMERGENCY MEDICINE.
Its CONVENIENCE MEDICINE with a CUSTOMER SERVICE FELLOWSHIP.
RustedFox out.