Issue One 2024 Editor's Pick

Time to Own Our Destiny

As we all reflect on the challenges our specialty has encountered over the past few years and the shock of the 2023 match, it is prudent that we, as a specialty, take a close look at the variables associated with picking a career in emergency medicine. My current editor’s pick is an article from a team of educational researchers across the United States with lead author Dr. Rosemarie Diaz and corresponding author Dr. Laura Hopson entitled Understanding clerkship experiences in emergency department (ED) and their potential influence on specialty selection:  A qualitative study. I encourage all of you to read it. It may surprise you.

The authors interviewed a group of graduating medical students who had done an emergency medicine rotation and asked them about their experiences. What they found should be a compelling reason for change. We ultimately control our destiny and according to the findings of this research team we have work to do. Key themes identified during the interviews that impacted students’ choice of emergency medicine as a specialty included: distressing interactions between patients and the ED care team, exclusive culture in the ED, belief that the ideal ED physician is male (remember the majority of students in medical schools are female), and lack of early exposure to emergency medicine.

We have work to do friends. The time to make a change is now and we need everyone to engage in changing the perception of our specialty!

Susan B. Promes, MD, MBA
Penn State College of Medicine
Editor-in-Chief