The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Working in the ER used to be a cool job. Now medical students shun it.

By
March 17, 2023 at 9:05 p.m. EDT
The emergency entrance at George Washington University Hospital in Washington. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
8 min
correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly said that applicants to emergency medicine training programs plunged 35 percent between 2021 and 2023. The correct figure is 26 percent. The article has been corrected.

Daryl Traylor dreamed of becoming an emergency room doctor ever since working as an ER technician in the mid-90s helping physicians care for children who broke their arms or nearly drowned.

But now he’s a first-year medical student, and those same doctors are urging Traylor not to follow in their footsteps.