David Vega, MD
YPS President

You’ve made it through residency and are in the first few years of practice. Now what? If you’re like me, you frequently think (and sometimes worry) about your plans and how you’re going to achieve your goals. Are you planning a purely clinical practice? Will you get involved with academics or administration? How does this all mesh with your plans outside of your career? What about buying a house, saving for retirement or planning for a family? If you’re fortunate, there are people in your life who have “been there” and can offer advice and answer your questions. But what if you want easy access to other opinions and sources of information?

Those of us who are relatively new to the practice of emergency medicine have career goals and concerns that differ from those of our more experienced colleagues. From the excitement (and admittedly some anxiety) of that first shift as an attending to surviving the boards to developing a practice style that won’t give some aggressive lawyer the chance to ruin your career, we have issues that are unique to the newer emergency physician. As members of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, we now have the opportunity to work together with peers at a similar career stage through the Young Physicians Section.

A little over a year ago I asked Dave Kramer, MD, (now AAEM board member and editor of Common Sense) if AAEM, like other organizations in medicine such as the AMA, had a section that offered specialized services to younger physicians during the formative years of their careers. He checked with then-president Antoine Kazzi, MD, and soon after, a taskforce was formed to get a young physicians section formed. Through the hard work of some dedicated individuals (i.e., the current YPS board of directors), the groundwork was laid for this new section, which was officially approved by AAEM President, Tom Scaletta, MD, and the AAEM board of directors in May of this year. We now stand ready to make this section into a unique part of AAEM which focuses on issues relevant to newer emergency physicians.

So what does this actually mean for you? The whole idea of this section is to provide resources which its members feel provide meaningful assistance in achieving personal and career goals. We need your input and involvement to help the section realize its full potential. We need to know what we can do to make this section into something you can really use. Towards this end, we recently sent out a survey through which we received a lot of great ideas. Thank you to everyone who responded! The suggestions are being compiled into a list of hot topics that will lead our agenda of goals to accomplish. Some of our initial projects include a need-to-know article series for Common Sense focusing on issues that are essential for early career success. Our webpage is being developed to be a useful tool in reviewing relevant information, obtaining career advice and networking with peers across the country. We are also investigating a program where interested YPS members can be matched with more experienced AAEM members as potential mentors. And make sure that you plan to attend our social get-together at AAEM’s Scientific Assembly in Las Vegas!

Beyond just having this section as a resource for information and networking, you may want to become involved with the development and leadership of the section. How about joining a committee and helping us build the Section? Or maybe you want to get involved with putting together our article series and career resources for Common Sense. Are you a web guru? How about helping to perfect our webpage or developing an “ask the expert” blog? Social activities and peer networking are very important… will you help organize our social event with AAEM/RSA at Scientific Assembly? Or maybe you have a new idea – this is your Section, what do you want it to be?

All AAEM members who are in their first seven years of practice after residency or are under the age of 40 are eligible for membership in the Young Physicians Section. Consistent with the principles of AAEM, this group is run in a democratic fashion – all YPS members can be involved and influence the direction of the Section. This is a unique opportunity to get involved with a brand new section at an early stage and make it into something great. I encourage you to join with us and see where we can take this!