As the snow settles into a downy blanket over my little home in Lexington, Ky., I get to spend a few hours nestled on the couch with my big, sweet dog, the fireplace glowing, doing one of my new favorite things: reading your submissions to EM Resident.
What struck me most this time around was the diversity of your unique interests within emergency medicine. To name just a few EM niches we’ve showcased in this edition:
- EMRA's Health Policy Academy fellows describe their experiences in legislative advocacy through the HPA program.
- EMS fellows, residents, and faculty have published their experience with a home-based community paramedicine program to optimize ED utilization.
- The Administration and Operations Committee provides both a primer on administration fellowship programs and a literature review on urgent care and telemedicine.
- The Wilderness Committee recaps MedWAR 2021 and celebrates the winners of the fierce competition.
- And for those in medical student education and program leadership, our medical student members penned a compelling letter to the editor on increasing the transparency of SLOEs.
You may be the kind of resident who enjoys a wide range of topics across EM, and finds something to incorporate into your own practice from each of these subspecialty interests. On the other hand, if you are developing a niche and are considering leadership or fellowship in that field, take an extra moment with those most relevant articles. Ask yourself how you could use this information to make a difference in the topic you are passionate about.
You could take action at the organizational level by writing EMRA policy. For example, if you are passionate about medical education and were inspired by the medical student members' letter to the editor, you might contact the authors to partner on an EMRA resolution to support increased transparency in SLOEs. If that resolution were then voted on and adopted by our Representative Council (composed of residents from EM programs across the country), this opinion piece written by a group of student leaders would become the official stance of EMRA. EMRA could then advocate to organizations like CORD in favor of aligning the SLOE with our members' values.
If health policy is for you, advocate for your patients by meeting with your state ACEP chapter to tackle local healthcare issues. To participate at the national level, residents can register for ACEP's next Leadership and Advocacy Conference in May 2022. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to join other leaders in EMRA and ACEP to learn more about policy-making and discuss healthcare issues with your state's representatives in U.S. Congress.
Whatever your passion in EM, be it health policy, EMS, wilderness, administration, medical education, clinical research, or a new frontier you're illuminating, I hope something you read in this issue adds a little fuel to that fire. And I hope by sharing your ideas and experiences in EM Resident, this magazine serves as a warm hearth for us to gather around and inspire each other to be better doctors, better people, and a better EMRA family.
Let's keep in touch!
Email emresidenteditor@emra.org | Instagram @jessadkinsmurphymd | Twitter @DrAdkinsMurphy