Emergency physician burnout: what the numbers say, and what you can control

The numbers at a glance

In the AMA's Organizational Biopsy, about 19,000 physicians across 38 states and 106 health systems answered in 2025. Emergency medicine came out highest, at 49.8%, against 41.9% for physicians overall (AMA, 2026). Medscape's 2024 report also put emergency medicine first, at 63%, against 49% overall (Medscape, 2024). The levels differ because the surveys ask different questions, which is covered below. The ranking does not differ.

EM burnout by source and year

The AMA series provides several recent years of EM-specific figures from the same method. It shows emergency medicine falling from 56.5% in 2023 to 52.2% in 2024 (AMA, 2025) and 49.8% in 2025 (AMA, 2026).

A separate long-running series, led by Tait Shanafelt and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, tracks all physicians rather than EM alone. It found burnout peaked at 62.8% in 2021 and fell to 45.2% in 2023 (n=7,643). The Stanford summary describes emergency physicians as “at heightened risk” but gives no EM percentage (Shanafelt et al., via Stanford Medicine, 2025).

So the direction is clear: burnout is lower than at the 2021 peak. Emergency medicine is still at or near the top.

Why the surveys disagree

Recent EM figures range from about half to almost two-thirds, depending on who asked and how. Each number is accurate for its own survey. Merging them into one “EM burnout rate” would not be.

• Different instruments. The AMA counts physicians reporting at least one symptom on its survey scale. Medscape asks physicians to rate themselves.
• Different samples. The AMA surveys physicians across participating health systems (about 19,000 responses from 106 systems in 2025). Medscape surveyed 9,226 US physicians (Medscape, 2024).
• Pooled studies are wide. A 2023 meta-analysis of 29 studies (n=16,619) found pooled burnout of 43% among EM health workers and 51% in studies of EM physicians only, with a 95% confidence interval of 28–74% (Alanazy & Alruwaili, 2023). That width is the honest answer to “what is the exact rate?”

Residents: career preferences and burnout

The JAMA Network Open study published January 27, 2026 examined the 2023 graduating EM resident cohort: 2,711 of 2,782 eligible residents responded. The researchers obtained the data in June–August 2024. We are withholding the burnout percentage pending clarification because the reported count, denominator and percentage are inconsistent (Lu et al., 2026).

In that cohort, lifestyle was the most frequently cited important influence on career choice.

A separate 2022 survey of 831 EM trainees and attending physicians at 21 sites asked about job opportunities after training: 92.4% rated the likelihood of finding any job as high, versus 49.8% for a desirable job (Olson et al., JACEP Open, 2024).

Job terms to investigate

This is career information, not medical advice. These surveys describe preferences and perceptions; they do not establish that particular job terms prevent or treat burnout. The following terms are useful questions when comparing offers:

Schedule

Shifts per month and hours per shift set your real workload. Ask for both in writing, along with the minimum you must work to keep full-time benefits. Our audit of public EM postings found that 86% did not state shifts per month and 49% did not state shift length (publicly posted EM attending listings from employer and recruiter sites, 2025–26 sample, VitalPair analysis).

Nights

Ask what share of shifts are nights, whether nights rotate or are dedicated, whether there is a night differential, and whether senior physicians can drop nights. A good answer is a number, not “shared fairly.”

Staffing and support

Ask how many advanced practice providers you supervise per shift, whether you must co-sign their charts, and whether there is a second physician at peak hours. Consider these details alongside shift length.

The way out

Read the noncompete radius and length, and consider whether leaving would require moving. Ask a physician-contract attorney how your state's law applies to the agreement.

On VitalPair, Find your fit asks for your limits on nights, shifts and location once, then ranks real listings against them. Employers must state pay, shifts per month and nights before a listing goes live.

Checklist before you sign

1. Shifts per month, hours per shift, and the minimum hours for full benefits, all in writing.
2. Share of nights, how they are assigned, and any night differential.
3. Weekends and holidays: how many, and how they are split.
4. APP supervision ratio and co-signature rules.
5. Who sets the schedule, and how far ahead it is published.
6. Noncompete radius and length, and whether it applies if you are let go.
7. Malpractice type, and who pays for tail coverage when you leave.

Questions physicians ask