“For many, the future of emergency medicine was hopeless, with no possibility of recovery,” de Wit said.
De Wit noted that detachment often serves as a psychological coping mechanism for doctors facing insurmountable workplace challenges.
“The unfortunate side effect is that the patient doesn’t feel they’re being heard as well, or they leave the emergency department feeling there was no sympathy for their condition,” she said.
Healthcare professionals expressed frustration with systemic failures that force them to administer care in corridors and waiting rooms.
“There is an overriding sentiment that everybody is looking for a way to leave the emergency department,” de Wit said.
Kaitlin Stockton, an emergency physician and spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, highlighted that early-career doctors are disproportionately departing the field.
“We're seeing this alarming exodus of health-care workers across the country,” Stockton said.
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Stockton emphasized that structural issues are driving young professionals away from hospital medicine entirely.
“And these are not people that are nearing retirement.
These are people that are three, five, 10 years out from school that are leaving emergency medicine, leaving hospital-based medicine or actually leaving medicine altogether — because they can no longer sustain this job and still maintain their own well-being,” she said.
James Maskalyk, a Toronto-based emergency physician, pointed out that systemic flaws directly damage the relationship between doctors and those seeking urgent medical care.
“If you look at the reasons why people leave the profession, organizational issues are the biggest ones,” Maskalyk said.
