As a medical student, do you ever wonder what it’s like to specialize in emergency medicine? Meet Christopher Davis, MD, an emergency physician and a featured doctor in the AMA’s “Shadow Me” Specialty Series, which offers advice directly from physicians about life in their specialties. Check out his insights to help determine whether a career in emergency medicine might be a good fit for you.
The AMA Specialty Guide simplifies medical students’ specialty selection process, highlights major specialties, details training information, and provides access to related association information. It is produced by FREIDA™, the AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®.
Learn more with the AMA about the medical specialty of emergency medicine.
“Shadowing” Dr. Christopher Davis
Specialty: Emergency medicine.
Practice setting: Group.
Employment type: Employed by Confluence Health in Wenatchee, Washington. Confluence Health is a member of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Years in practice: 10.
A typical day and week in my practice: Our full-time emergency physicians work primarily nine-hour shifts, 12–13 times per month. They rotate between day shifts, evening shifts and night shifts. We staff the two community emergency departments for Confluence Health.
I am also a leader in my staffing group, working closely with our group’s president on daily operations and company management. I am heavily involved on an administrative level supporting the health system’s IT team as a clinical informaticist. I am also involved in urgent care leadership. When not working in the emergency department, I am balancing my time between my personal life and these additional roles.
The most challenging and rewarding aspects of emergency medicine: The most challenging aspect is serving as the safety net for a fragile and eroding U.S. health care system facing many challenges. We are tasked with not only diagnosing and treating emergency medical conditions, but also with doing our best to help all folks who come through our doors.
Patients presenting to U.S. emergency departments come for lots of different reasons that have nothing to do with an emergent medical condition—lack of insurance, convenience, lack of access to primary care and specialty care, and inability to obtain outpatient diagnostics or procedures in a timely manner, as well as social issues, such as housing insecurity, substance use disorders and behavioral health issues.
While it can be very challenging to balance these “non-emergencies” alongside those higher acuity emergent patients, it can also be very rewarding, as often our small, nonemergent interventions go a long way in helping someone who didn’t know where else to turn.
The impact burnout has on emergency medicine: The impact of burnout in emergency medicine in 2025 is very alarming. I recently saw a poll stating that we are now the most-burned-out specialty in the house of medicine.
As the inpatient and outpatient worlds experience increasing pressures due to lack of staffing, payor pressures, regulation and financial constraints on clinics and health systems, these problems culminate in the emergency department in so many ways. The moral injury experienced by our specialty as a result is leading to a real crisis, with physicians leaving the field prematurely or experiencing behavioral health or substance use issues in high rates.
How Confluence Health is reducing physician burnout: Confluence Health has invested in physician well-being in many ways and has been recognized by the AMA for the organization’s ongoing committed efforts to improve physician satisfaction and reduce burnout.
How my lifestyle matches, or differs from, what I had envisioned: My expectations regarding work-life balance coming into emergency medicine have been largely met. Emergency medicine is a specialty where you don’t have to take the work home with you, as you might in other specialties. This comes at a cost, however, with working evenings, nights, weekends and holidays being a normal part of the job.
My gravitation into group leadership and administration was not something I envisioned for myself as a medical student. However, complementing my clinical practice with these duties has been a vital experience, enabling me to use another part of my brain to achieve job satisfaction.
Complementing my clinical shifts with this additional work has drastically improved my own burnout. I would advise all medical students pursuing emergency medicine to find a personal niche or role that they can do within the house of medicine to complement their work in the emergency department. Some of the happiest emergency physicians I know have done this and would give the same advice.
Skills every physician in training should have for emergency medicine but won’t be tested for on the board exam: Patience is a key attribute that one must develop to be successful in this career; being patient with staff, physician colleagues, patients and their families is a must.
We often see people at their worst when they come to the emergency department, which leads to confrontation and tension amongst these various groups. In order to be successful in this job on a personal and professional level, one must learn to be slow to anger, diffusing these challenging situations when others won’t or can’t.
One question physicians in training should ask themselves before pursuing emergency medicine: How thick is your skin? This specialty can be incredibly rewarding—there are not too many things as elating as using your skills to save a life—however, you will also see the worst of humanity: the suffering that comes along with our society and all its problems. You must learn to find your purpose and your personal fulfillment in a way that does not let the terrible things you will see detract from the good you are doing every single day when you come to work.
Books, podcasts or other resources every medical student interested in emergency medicine should be reading:
- The House of God, by Samuel Shem, MD.
- “Dirty White Coat” podcast.
- “ACEP Frontline” podcast.
Additional advice I would give to students who are considering emergency medicine: Go for it! Ten years into your career, you’ll be so glad you did.
