Emergency physicians had 4.59 times the odds of burnout of internal medicine subspecialists in the national 2021 Shanafelt survey, well above family medicine (1.57) and general pediatrics (2.44) (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2022). Burnout across all US physicians has since eased to 45.2% in 2023 from 62.8% in 2021, but the emergency medicine signals remain high: 48% of EM residents reported burnout in a 2024 national survey, and 13,888 emergency physicians left emergency practice between 2013 and 2020. Boarding, violence and incomplete staffing sit behind the numbers, much as abuse and attrition drive the trends in our call center agent burnout statistics. We aggregated data from Mayo Clinic Proceedings, JAMA Network Open, Annals of Emergency Medicine, the American Medical Association, the CDC, the AAMC, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health Affairs and the other primary sources listed in the methodology.
TL;DR
- Emergency physicians had an odds ratio of 4.59 for burnout vs internal medicine subspecialists in 2021 (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Shanafelt et al. 2022).
- 45.2% of US physicians reported burnout in 2023, down from 62.8% in 2021 (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Shanafelt et al. 2025).
- 48% of 7,852 EM residents reported at least one type of burnout (ABEM In-Training Exam survey 2024, JAMA Network Open 2026).
- Emergency physicians had 3.16 times the odds of high moral distress of internal medicine subspecialists (JAMA Network Open 2026).
- Female emergency physicians report high emotional exhaustion at 69% vs 57% for men across 26,939 physicians in 10 countries (Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025).
- US physicians work a median of 50 hours per week (Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022; JAMA Network Open 2026).
- 13,888 of 60,140 US emergency physicians left ED practice from 2013 to 2020, at 3.1% to 6.6% a year (Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025).
- Women emergency physicians who left did so at a median age of 44.0, vs 56.4 for men (Academic Emergency Medicine 2023).
- 48.4% of Canadian emergency physicians in a five-year cohort reduced their clinical hours (CMAJ 2026).
- 40.1% of admitted patients boarded in the ED for more than 4 hours at the January 2022 peak (Health Affairs 2025).
- 54.1% of surveyed AAEM members reported violence linked to ED boarding (Health Affairs Scholar 2025).
- Unfilled EM residency positions fell from 554 in 2023 to 65 in 2025 (NRMP data via Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025).
1. Burnout Rates: Emergency Medicine Versus the Rest of Medicine
Burnout across medicine has come down from its pandemic peak, but the specialty gap is the more useful number. In the 2021 national survey, emergency physicians had an odds ratio of 4.59 for burnout compared with internal medicine subspecialists, ahead of general pediatrics (2.44) and family medicine (1.57) (Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022). That survey ran from December 2021 to January 2022, when overall physician burnout hit 62.8%.
By 2023, overall burnout had fallen to 45.2%, close to the 43.9% seen in 2017, yet physicians still had 1.82 times the burnout odds of other US workers (Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2025). EM-specific estimates from smaller studies range widely depending on the instrument: 43.28% in a 2026 multi-specialty sample, and 77.7% classified as high risk on the Maslach Burnout Inventory in a 2024 sample of 103 emergency physicians. The pipeline is not spared: nearly half of EM residents report burnout.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| EM burnout odds vs internal medicine subspecialists, 2021 | OR 4.59 (95% CI 2.7 to 8.01) | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| US physician burnout, 2011 / 2014 / 2017 / 2020 / 2021 | 45.5% / 54.4% / 43.9% / 38.2% / 62.8% | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| US physician burnout, 2023 | 45.2% (physicians vs other workers: OR 1.82) | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2025 |
| Physician burnout, AMA Organizational Biopsy | 48.2% (2023), 53% (2022), 62.8% (2021); 12,400+ responses | American Medical Association, 2024 |
| Burnout, emergency vs pediatric emergency physicians | 43.28% EM, 44.1% PEM (453 respondents) | Alhaddad et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2026 |
| Emergency physicians at high burnout risk (MBI) | 77.7% of 103 surveyed in August 2024 | Gibbons et al., American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2025 |
| EM residents reporting any burnout, 2024 | 48% (internal 33%, external 32%, both 18%) | ABEM ITE survey, JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| Residents and fellows (all specialties) with burnout, 2023 | 50.0% vs 45.2% of practicing physicians | Shanafelt et al., Academic Medicine 2025 |
Context note: the EM resident figures come from the 2024 American Board of Emergency Medicine In-Training Exam post-exam survey, fielded February 27 to March 2, 2024 (JAMA Network Open 2026). Sexual minority residents reported any burnout at 54% vs 47% for heterosexual peers. The AMA figures come from its Organizational Biopsy, which covered 31 states and 81 health systems in 2023 (AMA, 2024).
2. Exhaustion, Moral Distress and the Gender Gap
Burnout scores hide what kind of strain is driving them. In emergency medicine the signal is moral distress, the sense of knowing the right care and being unable to deliver it. Emergency physicians had 3.16 times the odds of high moral distress of internal medicine subspecialists in a national survey of 5,741 physicians fielded October 2023 to March 2024 (JAMA Network Open 2026). Across all physicians, 75.1% of those with high moral distress were burned out, against 30.7% of those with low distress, and they were nearly twice as likely to plan to leave.
The gender data point to a specific pattern rather than a simple gap. A systematic review of 18 studies covering 26,939 emergency physicians in 10 countries found overall burnout did not differ by sex, but women more often reported high emotional exhaustion (69% vs 57%) and a low sense of personal accomplishment (45% vs 29%), while 44% of both sexes scored high on depersonalization (Thakur et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| EM odds of high moral distress vs internal medicine subspecialists | OR 3.16 (95% CI 2.27 to 4.4) | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| Physicians with high moral distress (all specialties) | 39.1% (2,243 of 5,741) | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| Burnout with high vs low moral distress | 75.1% vs 30.7% | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| Intent to leave within 24 months, high vs low moral distress | 34.5% vs 18.2% | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| Physicians vs general workforce, moral distress | OR 4.40 | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| High emotional exhaustion, female vs male emergency physicians | 69% vs 57% | Thakur et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Low personal accomplishment, female vs male | 45% vs 29% | Thakur et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| High depersonalization, both sexes | 44% | Thakur et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
Context note: burnout and depression overlap but are not the same thing. In a secondary analysis of 5,993 physicians surveyed in 2023-2024, 29.4% of physicians with normal depression scores still had high burnout indicators, and each 1-point rise in depression score carried 15% higher odds of suicidal ideation while burnout scores alone did not (Shanafelt et al., Academic Medicine 2026).
3. Clinical Hours, Staffing and Control Over the Schedule
Emergency medicine is shift work, which makes the hour count less telling than what fills the hours and who controls them. US physicians report a median of 50 hours per week (interquartile range 40 to 60), and in the 2023-2024 national survey the odds of high moral distress rose with each additional weekly hour worked (OR 1.01 per hour) (JAMA Network Open 2026). Note that this is an all-physician figure; national EM-specific weekly hour data were not available in the sources we could read.
Staffing gaps convert hours into strain. In a 970-physician survey (December 2022 to March 2025), 47.9% worked with an incompletely staffed team more than a quarter of the time, a condition linked to 2.21 times the odds of burnout, and 26.4% planned to cut their clinical hours within a year (JAMA Internal Medicine 2025). Time off is the other pressure valve, and it leaks: 70.4% of physicians did patient care tasks while on vacation.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median physician work hours per week | 50 (IQR 40 to 60) | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| Median nights on call per week, 2020 and 2021 | 1 (IQR 0 to 2) | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| Satisfied with work-life integration, 2021 vs 2023 | 30.3% vs 42.2% | Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2025 |
| Worked with incompletely staffed team over 25% of the time | 47.9% (burnout OR 2.21) | Incomplete Team Staffing study, JAMA Internal Medicine 2025 |
| Intent to reduce clinical hours in 12 months | 26.4% (intent to leave in 24 months: 15.4%) | JAMA Internal Medicine 2025 |
| Adequate control over patient load and team / over schedule | About 61% / 74.6% | Work Control study, Annals of Internal Medicine 2025 |
| Physicians taking 15 or fewer vacation days a year | 59.6% (5 or fewer: 19.9%) | Sinsky et al., JAMA Network Open 2024 |
| Benchmark clinical load per emergency physician in a scheduling model | 1,600 clinical hours a year | Sebro et al., Journal of Emergency Medicine 2026 |
Context note: the scheduling model found that a 12-physician emergency group with six weeks of paid time off and four allowed concurrent absences still faces a minimum vacation-conflict probability of about 0.357 (Journal of Emergency Medicine 2026). Poor control over patient load and workload independently predicted intent to cut hours in the Annals of Internal Medicine work control study. The vacation data come from a 2020-2021 survey of 3,024 physicians (Sinsky et al., JAMA Network Open 2024), in which only 49.1% had full EHR inbox coverage while away.
4. Attrition: Who Leaves Emergency Medicine and When
Attrition in emergency medicine is gradual before it is final. Physicians who left emergency practice delivered 12.3% fewer ED services in the year before leaving (602.2 vs 687.0), and 27.9% had cut their services by more than half (Agboh et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025). In that Medicare-based study of 60,140 emergency physicians, 13,888 left between 2013 and 2020, with annual attrition peaking at 6.6% in 2017. Only 23.7% of leavers kept practicing elsewhere, mostly in urgent care (36.1%) and office-based settings (31.8%).
The exit is earlier for women. Female emergency physicians who left did so at a median age of 44.0 years against 56.4 for men, after a median of 10.5 years post-residency against 17.5 (Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2023). A smaller cohort of 3,725 graduates from 21 residency programs found no gender difference (5.3% of men vs 5.8% of women left clinical EM), a reminder that older cohorts and recent graduates tell different stories.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency physicians leaving ED practice, 2013-2020 | 13,888 of 60,140 | Agboh et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Annual attrition rate | 3.1% (2013) to 6.6% (2017); 3.8% (2020) | Agboh et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Leavers who cut ED services by more than 50% in the prior year | 27.9% (vs 3.5% of those who stayed) | Agboh et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Median age at attrition, women vs men | 44.0 vs 56.4 years (female aOR 2.30) | Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2023 |
| Canadian emergency physicians who left the profession, 2020-2025 cohort | 10.0% (41 of 410) | de Wit et al., CMAJ 2026 |
| Canadian emergency physicians who reduced clinical hours | 48.4% (170 of 351) | de Wit et al., CMAJ 2026 |
| Canadian emergency physicians with high exhaustion or depersonalization, January 2025 | 65.2% | de Wit et al., CMAJ 2026 |
| Annual attrition, EM nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 13.8% weighted (12.1% in 2014 to 17.6% in 2019) | Gettel et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
Context note: the Canadian longitudinal cohort shows how attrition hides inside part-time work: beyond the 10% who left, 19.7% took time off and nearly half cut their hours (de Wit et al., CMAJ 2026). The same cohort reported 59% high emotional exhaustion and 64% high depersonalization in its 2022 wave (Annals of Emergency Medicine 2024). The advanced practice provider figures come from Gettel et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025.
5. Boarding and Crowding: The Workload Physicians Cannot Discharge
Boarding, holding admitted patients in the ED because no inpatient bed is free, is the main structural driver emergency physicians cite. At the January 2022 peak, 40.1% of admitted patients boarded in the ED for more than four hours and 6.3% for more than 24 hours, based on 46.2 million hospitalizations from 2017 to 2024 (Janke et al., Health Affairs 2025). Each boarder is a patient the emergency physician remains responsible for while new arrivals keep coming.
The cost shows up in money, errors and morale. A time-driven costing study put the daily cost of a medical-surgical boarder at $1,856 vs $993 for the same patient on an inpatient floor (ACEP release on Canellas et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2024). In an early 2025 survey of AAEM members, 98.5% said boarding affected their job satisfaction.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Admitted patients boarding more than 4 hours, January 2022 peak | 40.1% | Janke et al., Health Affairs 2025 |
| Admitted patients boarding more than 24 hours, January 2022 peak | 6.3% | Janke et al., Health Affairs 2025 |
| Daily cost, med/surg boarder vs inpatient | $1,856 vs $993 | Canellas et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2024 |
| Daily cost, ICU boarder vs ICU inpatient | $2,267 vs $2,165 | Canellas et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2024 |
| Emergency physicians reporting boarding hurts job satisfaction | 98.5% of 195 AAEM members | Norton et al., Health Affairs Scholar 2025 |
| Error likelihood for boarded patients | Adjusted IRR 1.60 (250,049 encounters, 2018-2023) | Kolikof et al., JACEP Open 2025 |
| EM program directors reporting a negative effect on residents’ throughput skills | 80% of 170 | Goldflam et al., AEM Education and Training 2024 |
| US ED visits, 2022 | 155.4 million (17.8 million admitted) | CDC NCHS, NHAMCS 2022 |
Context note: the error study comes from a single health system (Kolikof et al., JACEP Open 2025), and the cost study measured 25 acute stroke patients at one academic center, so both figures are signals rather than national rates. The national ED volume figure is from the CDC FastStats page, where 40.6% of visits saw a clinician in under 15 minutes.
6. Violence and Harassment in the Emergency Department
Violence is not an edge case in emergency medicine; it is a routine exposure. 54.1% of emergency physicians in the 2025 AAEM survey reported experiencing violence tied to ED boarding (Norton et al., Health Affairs Scholar 2025), and a national survey of US pediatric emergency physicians at 31 children’s hospitals found a 96% prevalence of workplace violence exposure, with half of respondents never reporting violent events (Huang et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2024).
Harassment is also where the CDC sees the sharpest deterioration among health workers overall. Health workers reporting harassment at work doubled from 6% in 2018 to 13% in 2022, and 81% of harassed health workers reported burnout vs 42% of those not harassed (CDC Vital Signs, October 2023).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency physicians reporting boarding-related violence | 54.1% | Norton et al., Health Affairs Scholar 2025 |
| Pediatric EM physicians exposed to workplace violence | 96% (207 respondents) | Huang et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2024 |
| Pediatric EM physicians who witnessed violence with a weapon | 20% (10% injured needing care or time off) | Huang et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2024 |
| Health workers harassed at work, 2018 vs 2022 | 6% vs 13% | CDC Vital Signs, 2023 |
| Burnout among harassed vs non-harassed health workers, 2022 | 81% vs 42% | CDC Vital Signs, 2023 |
| Health workers reporting burnout often, 2018 vs 2022 | 32% vs 46% | CDC Vital Signs, 2023 |
| Workplace violence reports in one large urban ED | 130 in 5 months (0.85 per day; 22% physical) | Doehring et al., American Journal of Emergency Medicine 2023 |
Context note: the CDC data cover all health workers, not physicians alone, and come from the Quality of Worklife survey. The single-ED report figure is from a department with about 100,000 annual visits (Doehring et al., 2023). Older national injury data (most recent available: NEISS-Work, 2015-2017) found intentional injuries by another person accounted for 15% of the roughly 1.14 million health care worker injuries treated in US EDs (Carey et al., American Journal of Industrial Medicine 2023).
7. Workforce Supply, the Residency Pipeline and the 2030 Debate
The supply story flipped twice in five years. In the 2023 Match, 554 of 3,010 EM residency positions (18.4%) went unfilled at 131 of 276 programs (Preiksaitis et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2023), after applicants were warned of a projected surplus of 7,845 emergency physicians by 2030 (Marco et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2021). By 2025, the fill rate was back to 97.9%, with 65 positions unfilled and 3,753 applicants (NRMP data via Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025).
The workforce itself grew from 25,550 clinically active board-certified emergency physicians in 2013 to 32,421 in 2023 (Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2026), close to the 32,880 the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts in May 2025. Advanced practice providers rose from 20.9% to 26.1% of emergency clinicians between 2013 and 2019. The question for staffing is less headcount than how many of those physicians work full clinical schedules, which is where the attrition and reduced-hours data in sections 3 and 4 matter. Burnout also feeds the pipeline: EM applicants rated burnout (2.59 on a 1-to-5 scale) and ED crowding (2.52) among the deterrents to choosing the specialty (Kiemeney et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| EM Match fill rate, 2021 / 2023 / 2025 | 99.5% / 81.6% / 97.9% | NRMP data via Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| EM Match applicants, 2023 vs 2025 | 2,765 vs 3,753 | NRMP data via Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Unfilled EM PGY-1 positions, 2022 vs 2023 | 219 (7.5%) vs 554 (18.4%) | Gettel et al., AEM Education and Training 2023 |
| Clinically active board-certified emergency physicians, 2013 vs 2023 | 25,550 vs 32,421 | Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2026 |
| Emergency medicine physicians, BLS employment and mean annual wage | 32,880; $317,480 (May 2025) | BLS OEWS, SOC 29-1214 |
| APP share of emergency clinicians, 2013 vs 2019 | 20.9% vs 26.1% | Gettel et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2022 |
| Projected emergency physician supply in 2030 (2021 task force) | Surplus of 7,845 | Marco et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2021 |
| Projected overall US physician shortage by 2036 | Up to 86,000 | AAMC, March 2024 |
Context note: the AAMC projects the US population aged 65 and older will grow 34.1% by 2036, and 20% of clinically active physicians are already 65 or older (AAMC, 2024). The 2030 surplus projection assumed 3% annual attrition, below the 3.1% to 6.6% later measured in Medicare data. Nurses fill part of the gap, and the training bottlenecks are covered in our ADN nursing enrollment statistics. Academic sites carry a large share of the load: 43.5% of emergency physicians work at least partly in an academic ED, and those EDs handle 32.8% of US ED visits (Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2024).
Summary: Emergency Physician Burnout by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| EM burnout odds vs internal medicine subspecialists, 2021 | OR 4.59 | Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| All-physician burnout, 2021 vs 2023 | 62.8% vs 45.2% | Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022, 2025 |
| AMA Organizational Biopsy burnout, 2023 | 48.2% | American Medical Association, 2024 |
| EM residents with any burnout, 2024 | 48% | ABEM ITE survey, JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| EM physician burnout, 2026 multi-specialty sample | 43.28% | Pediatric Emergency Care 2026 |
| EM odds of high moral distress | OR 3.16 | JAMA Network Open 2026 |
| High emotional exhaustion, women vs men | 69% vs 57% | Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Median physician work week | 50 hours | Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2022 |
| Incomplete staffing more than 25% of the time | 47.9% | JAMA Internal Medicine 2025 |
| Emergency physicians leaving ED practice, 2013-2020 | 13,888 of 60,140 | Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Annual attrition peak | 6.6% (2017) | Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025 |
| Median age at attrition, women vs men | 44.0 vs 56.4 | Academic Emergency Medicine 2023 |
| Canadian emergency physicians who cut clinical hours | 48.4% | CMAJ 2026 |
| Admitted patients boarding more than 4 hours, peak | 40.1% | Health Affairs 2025 |
| Boarding-related violence reported | 54.1% | Health Affairs Scholar 2025 |
| Health workers harassed at work, 2018 vs 2022 | 6% vs 13% | CDC Vital Signs 2023 |
| Unfilled EM residency positions, 2023 vs 2025 | 554 vs 65 | NRMP data via WestJEM 2025 |
| Board-certified emergency physicians, 2023 | 32,421 | Academic Emergency Medicine 2026 |
| BLS emergency medicine physician employment, May 2025 | 32,880 | BLS OEWS |
| Projected US physician shortage by 2036 | Up to 86,000 | AAMC 2024 |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure above was read during research for this article in a peer-reviewed abstract or full text (via PubMed Central and Europe PMC), a federal data page or API, or an organization’s press release. Statistics circulating on blogs without a primary document were excluded. Emergency departments also connect to the dispatch side of emergency care covered in our NG911 voice and text dispatch statistics.
- Shanafelt et al., Mayo Clinic Proceedings: burnout during the first 2 years of COVID-19 (2022) and changes in burnout 2011 to 2023 (2025); residents and fellows in Academic Medicine 2025; burnout and depression in Academic Medicine 2026
- American Medical Association: Physician burnout rate drops below 50% for first time in 4 years (2024)
- JAMA Network Open: Moral Distress and Occupational Burnout in US Physicians (2026), Sexual Orientation and Burnout Among EM Residents (2026), Vacation Days and Burnout (2024)
- JAMA Internal Medicine: Incomplete Team Staffing, Burnout, and Work Intentions (2025); Annals of Internal Medicine: Work Control, Burnout and Career Intentions (2025)
- EM-specific burnout: Alhaddad et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2026, Gibbons et al., American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2025, Thakur et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025, de Wit et al., CMAJ 2026
- Attrition and workforce: Agboh et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2025, Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2023, Gettel et al., Academic Emergency Medicine 2026, Gettel et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2022, Marco et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2021, Sebro et al., Journal of Emergency Medicine 2026
- Residency Match: Sheng et al., Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 2025 (NRMP data), Preiksaitis et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine 2023, Kiemeney et al., WestJEM 2025
- Boarding and violence: Janke et al., Health Affairs 2025, Norton et al., Health Affairs Scholar 2025, ACEP press release on the Annals boarding cost study (October 2024), Goldflam et al., AEM Education and Training 2024, Huang et al., Pediatric Emergency Care 2024
- CDC: Vital Signs, Health Workers Face a Mental Health Crisis (2023), NCHS FastStats, Emergency Department Visits (NHAMCS 2022)
- AAMC: New AAMC report shows continuing projected physician shortage (March 2024)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, emergency medicine physicians (SOC 29-1214), read through the BLS public data API (series OEUN000000000000029121401 and OEUN000000000000029121404)
- Data watch: The Medscape Physician Burnout & Depression Report and Medscape’s emergency medicine lifestyle data could not be read (paywall and access errors), so no Medscape figures appear here; national EM-specific weekly hours were also not available, and hour figures above are all-physician unless labeled. EM burnout rates vary sharply by instrument and sample: 43.28% (average rate, 453 respondents), 48% (EM residents), 65.2% (Canadian cohort, high exhaustion or depersonalization) and 77.7% (MBI high risk, 103 respondents) should not be compared directly. The AMA Organizational Biopsy (48.2% in 2023) and the Shanafelt national survey (45.2% in 2023) use different samples and methods. The Shanafelt 2025 paper is paywalled; we cite its published abstract, and its specialty-level 2023 results could not be read, so the 4.59 odds ratio is the 2021 estimate. The Agboh attrition data end in 2020, the 2030 surplus projection dates from 2021 and the NEISS-Work injury data from 2015-2017 (most recent available). BLS OEWS excludes self-employed physicians, so its 32,880 count is not directly comparable to the 32,421 Medicare-based count. The supply outlook conflicts across sources: an EM-specific surplus projected for 2030 versus an all-specialty shortage projected by the AAMC for 2036. Newer data expected: the AMA’s 2025 burnout results, the next Shanafelt national survey and the 2026 NRMP Match analyses.
Last updated: October 3, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when the AMA publishes its next national burnout results and the NRMP releases its 2027 Main Residency Match data.