Why a fourth year will not fix emergency medicine’s real problems
The field of emergency medicine (EM) is at a crossroads. Faced with rising burnout, a constantly changing health care landscape, and an evolving trend in unfilled residency positions, the specialty is now grappling with another proposed structural change: A proposed mandatory fourth year. While the idea has been periodically debated over the past two decades, it gained new momentum with proposed changes to the ACGME Program Requirements for Graduate Medical …