The Future

[AmoryBlaine]

I think this has probably been discussed before, but never all that thoroughly that I've seen...

I just finished 2nd year, still thinking about EM as I go into M3 (but keeping an open mind). For all of you residents and attendings, what is your sense of the future of the specialty? It is by all appereances one of the "hottest" right now, what do you think it will look like in 10 years?

Are there going to be too many ERPs? ACEP doesn't seem to think so but alot of the literature I've read includes the caveat that workforce projections are really difficult to make accurately. Do you all know anyone who is struggling to find work or who has had to take a position in an area s/he didn't want to live?

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

[BKN]

I think this has probably been discussed before, but never all that thoroughly that I've seen...

I just finished 2nd year, still thinking about EM as I go into M3 (but keeping an open mind). For all of you residents and attendings, what is your sense of the future of the specialty? It is by all appereances one of the "hottest" right now, what do you think it will look like in 10 years?

Are there going to be too many ERPs? ACEP doesn't seem to think so but alot of the literature I've read includes the caveat that workforce projections are really difficult to make accurately. Do you all know anyone who is struggling to find work or who has had to take a position in an area s/he didn't want to live?

Thanks in advance for the input.

Much of our work depends on human stupidity: drugs, alcohol, obesity, not taking your meds, not exercising.

Unless the basic scientists come up with a whole bunch of easy fixes to the problems above, I think you can trust human nature not to change.

 

[docB]

Everything that I am hearing says that there will be too few EPs in the next 20 years. The pool is thinning at about 500-1000 a year faster than the residencies can replace them. This is for a field that already can't fully staff all the jobs with BC EPs which is why we have non BC docs working many rural EDs. Of all the problems facing EM oversaturation is not one of them.