Emergency medicine specialists are trained to handle unpredictable life or death situations, but the relentless pace of their profession may be cutting their own lives short.
Some studies show their life expectancy is significantly lower than the national average, but available data on the subject is inconclusive. Nonetheless, the high-pressure environment, irregular shifts and mental health toll are stressors that affect the quality of life of these professionals.
The News spoke to an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the School of Medicine, an emergency medical technician, or EMT, and the chief of emergency medicine at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Center about the issues emergency medicine workers face in balancing demanding work with personal health.
The narrative around reduced life expectancy for emergency medicine specialists, often cited as 58.7 years, comes from older, small-scale studies that don’t reflect current data from the U.S.
“The idea that our life expectancy is drastically lower is based on a false statistic from a small case study,” says Dr. Eleanor Reid, an emergency physician at Yale.
Emergency medicine pressures
Reid acknowledges that the challenges faced by emergency medicine workers could contribute to poor health outcomes. Reid cited irregular schedules and flips from day to night shifts as major issues within the profession.
Yale New Haven Hospital emphasizes physicians’ well-being, Reid said. Some professionals, for example, are consistently assigned day or night shifts, which reduces the day and night flipping.
According to Reid, scheduling in the profession overall is improving. The use of nocturnists who exclusively work night shifts helps reduce the stress of switching between days and nights, she believes.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but there’s still a long way to go,” she says.
Dr. Asim Tarabar, chief of emergency medicine at the West Haven VA Medical Center, echoes concerns.
“You might have five to ten patients waiting, and the work is constantly interrupted — an EKG here, a consultant there,” Tarabar said, describing the unpredictability of the emergency care. “Your thought process gets broken, and that’s when mistakes happen.”
This relentless pace, Tarabar said, not only contributes to burnout but also makes it difficult for physicians to lead balanced lives.
Emotional toll
Burnout in emergency medicine is widespread and impacts mental health. According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, between 300 and 400 physicians die by suicide each year in the U.S. alone.
“Now, there’s more of a focus on wellness, especially post-COVID,” Reid observed. At Yale, she noted, “there’s a wellness committee to build a sense of community,” though she emphasized that the change is gradual.
Lizzie Greenberg ’25, who works as an EMT, adds a unique perspective. According to Greenberg, while EMTs share many of the same stresses, they often face unique challenges related to their position within the medical hierarchy.
According to Greenberg, the emotional aspect of emergency medicine is exhausting, describing experiences that range from responding to overdoses to threats from patients.
The job can also feel isolating, Greenberg said.
“You don’t want to offload emotionally to family or friends because they don’t understand the job,” Greenberg told the News. “There needs to be more support for us, like a mandatory wellness group.”
According to Tarabar, more needs to be done to address the emotional toll of emergency work.
He described night shifts as particularly stressful, not only because of the lack of sleep but also because of the constant anxiety over whether workers will be able to rest at all.
“You wake up early, have coffee, but then stress about getting enough sleep for the night shift,” Tarabar said. This cycle of exhaustion and anxiety is familiar to many in emergency medicine, contributing to long-term health risks, he added.
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