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Young ER doctors risk their lives on the pandemic's front lines. But they struggle to find jobs.
It's from January.
Health
Young ER doctors risk their lives on the pandemic’s front lines. But they struggle to find jobs.
By Ben Guarino
Jan. 4, 2021 at 2:23 p.m. EST
Owais Durrani does not have a job, a predicament that would have been almost unthinkable for a doctor with his skills a year ago. ... At University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he is training in emergency medicine, Durrani has treated hundreds of covid-19 patients. He has dosed them with steroids, given them oxygen and carefully turned them onto their bellies to relieve respiratory distress.
{snip}
Like him, many in this class of emergency medicine physicians — young doctors, called residents, who are training in this specialty — are struggling to find full-time employment, even while they work on the front lines treating covid-19 patients. ... The dearth of jobs is the result of a domino effect: Many people stayed away from hospital emergency rooms this past year, wary of contracting the virus. As patient numbers dropped, emergency departments brought in less money. As a result, cash-strapped employers stopped recruiting new doctors.
{snip}
“It’s by far the tightest job market in emergency medicine that I’ve ever seen,” said Mark Reiter, the chief executive of the consulting group Emergency Excellence and director of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Nashville. By his conservative estimate, at least a quarter of residents are having trouble finding work.
About 2,500 new emergency medicine doctors enter the workforce each year, [emergency medicine physician R.J. Sontag, the president of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association] said. They do so heavily in debt, he said, with half of them owing more than $200,000 in school loans, and one-fourth owing over $300,000. ... Many of the newest crop have had contracts altered, if not rescinded. “I have a good friend who signed a contract, bought a home, moved his wife across the country,” Sontag said, “and then he lost his contract after he’d already moved.”
{snip}
Some residents have opted to apply for emergency medicine fellowships, which provide additional expertise in toxicology, ultrasounds, wilderness medicine or other subjects at academic centers. ... “All fellowships have become more competitive this year,” Sontag said. Opting for a fellowship also has financial consequences; the pay in a fellowship is closer to a resident’s salary — an average of about $59,000 — than it is to a full-time attending physician’s salary, an amount in the six figures.
{snip}
By Ben Guarino
Ben Guarino is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Science section. He joined The Post in 2016. Twitter https://twitter.com/bbguari
Young ER doctors risk their lives on the pandemic’s front lines. But they struggle to find jobs.
By Ben Guarino
Jan. 4, 2021 at 2:23 p.m. EST
Owais Durrani does not have a job, a predicament that would have been almost unthinkable for a doctor with his skills a year ago. ... At University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he is training in emergency medicine, Durrani has treated hundreds of covid-19 patients. He has dosed them with steroids, given them oxygen and carefully turned them onto their bellies to relieve respiratory distress.
{snip}
Like him, many in this class of emergency medicine physicians — young doctors, called residents, who are training in this specialty — are struggling to find full-time employment, even while they work on the front lines treating covid-19 patients. ... The dearth of jobs is the result of a domino effect: Many people stayed away from hospital emergency rooms this past year, wary of contracting the virus. As patient numbers dropped, emergency departments brought in less money. As a result, cash-strapped employers stopped recruiting new doctors.
{snip}
“It’s by far the tightest job market in emergency medicine that I’ve ever seen,” said Mark Reiter, the chief executive of the consulting group Emergency Excellence and director of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Nashville. By his conservative estimate, at least a quarter of residents are having trouble finding work.
About 2,500 new emergency medicine doctors enter the workforce each year, [emergency medicine physician R.J. Sontag, the president of the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association] said. They do so heavily in debt, he said, with half of them owing more than $200,000 in school loans, and one-fourth owing over $300,000. ... Many of the newest crop have had contracts altered, if not rescinded. “I have a good friend who signed a contract, bought a home, moved his wife across the country,” Sontag said, “and then he lost his contract after he’d already moved.”
{snip}
Some residents have opted to apply for emergency medicine fellowships, which provide additional expertise in toxicology, ultrasounds, wilderness medicine or other subjects at academic centers. ... “All fellowships have become more competitive this year,” Sontag said. Opting for a fellowship also has financial consequences; the pay in a fellowship is closer to a resident’s salary — an average of about $59,000 — than it is to a full-time attending physician’s salary, an amount in the six figures.
{snip}
By Ben Guarino
Ben Guarino is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Science section. He joined The Post in 2016. Twitter https://twitter.com/bbguari
4 replies
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