J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2022 Aug;33(4):38-48.

Analysis of work, life, and occupation perception of emergency physician by generations

• Park JS
• Seo BS
• Cho KH
• Kim IB
• Lee MJ
• Yoon YS
• Park KH
• Park SY
• Kim HJ
• Key DH
• Lee HM
• Joo YM
• Jee CG
• Choi SJ
• Yeo IH
• Kang JH
• Jung WJ
• Lim DS
• Lee ES

Abstract

Objective
As the history of emergency medicine grows longer, emergency medicine specialists are observed to comprise various age groups. There have been no prior studies on the generation shift analysis of emergency medicine specialists. Our study is designed to identify the characteristics of each generation and predict the generation shift in emergency medicine physicians.
Methods
The analysis was based on the results of the 2020 survey of emergency medicine specialists. The study was conducted on 1,307 respondents and finally, the responses of 967 people were analyzed after excluding 199 who were not in charge of emergency room treatments and 141 who gave incomplete responses. The respondents were divided into four groups based on the following generations: first generation (1996-1999), second generation (2000-2008), third generation (2009-2014), and fourth generation (2015-2020), classified by the year in which they acquired their emergency medicine board license. The intergenerational difference analysis was done using the Kruskall-Wallis test.
Results
The first generation was characterized by a high proportion of university hospital professors, large non-clinical activity hours, a few night shifts, higher social contributions, low satisfaction with the training and education environment, and a high retirement age compared to the later generations. In the second generation, the characteristics of the first, third, and fourth generations were generally mixed. The third and fourth generations showed similar characteristics overall, though there were differences in some categories.
Conclusion
There were significant differences by generation in the working environments, motivation for application, and retirement age. This is the first study that quantifies generational differences. Considering these trends, a discussion about the work environment needs to be initiated.

Keyword

Emergency physician; Generation; Trend; Retirement; Motivation