I recently watched a video on LinkedIn of Match Day for a medical school in Florida. There were masks all around with graduating students holding up signs showing the specialties and locations of their matches. There was one sweet moment when a graduating doctor, in a fit of excitement, grasped the neck of a spouse and leaned in for a kiss, all the while forgetting to remove the masks. I was thrilled to see top performing graduating physicians choosing emergency medicine and prioritizing our specialty, despite the precarious circumstances we found ourselves in during 2020: job insecurity, unfulfilled contractual promises and financial risk of inability to meet obligations of student loans, mortgages, etc. became a frightening reality for many emergency physicians.

The community of emergency physicians has long been an exceptional group of people. It is more certain than ever this match season that those who choose our specialty are doing so because they believe in the good we can do and see the need for our skills in service to our communities. Emergency physicians will bravely walk into an uncontrolled situation when no one else is willing to do so. We stand arm in arm, willing to try to do good knowing there will be times when, due to circumstances beyond our control, we will not be able to do all we would like to do.

However, bravery is not without cost. I spoke to one of my dearest and most precious friends recently who told me, “I said the next dead baby would be my last one and I would hang up my hat. I just want you to know I might be done with this gig.” This amazingly talented doctor is skilled, experienced, empathetic and dedicated to a degree few humans will achieve in a lifetime. It is emergency physicians being vulnerable without shame, treating one another with the respect we show our patients and open appreciation of one another because we have walked a mile in the shoes of our colleagues, who will see us through to be brave for another day. Only if we lean in on each other will we be able to withstand the storms that are inevitable in emergency services.

I am excited for the rising physicians choosing our specialty and accepting an uncertain future where the four walls of the emergency department do not restrain us. Let us welcome them with open arms into our family of innovators, healers and doctors who are uniquely positioned to meet both imminent and long-term healthcare needs in our state, country and around the world.  Without question, emergency medicine will always be an essential voice in the house of medicine.