Dr. Erin Mancuso Smith recently celebrated her 20th anniversary with Mid-Atlantic Emergency Medical Associates and as an Emergency Medicine physician. Reflecting on her two decades in the specialty, she recalls the uncertainties she encountered at the beginning of her career as well as the challenges of the profession. Now looking back on her journey, she takes pride in the organization’s development and her role in it, feeling grateful to have worked with such incredible and supportive colleagues.
In reflection: 20 years ago today, I worked my first shift as a “real” doctor. In a leap of faith, I moved to Charlotte knowing just one guy who I was only dating at the time. I agreed to work in Statesville my first year, 63 miles each way from my house, with a morning commute through the city of Charlotte that would take me 1.5 hours with traffic after working an overnight shift. But I did it because I knew I was joining a good group; what I didn’t know was just how great that group would be.
Emergency Medicine is hard. The medicine is tough, the schedule is tougher, and the emotional toll can be brutal. I have worked more holidays, weekends, and overnights than I care to count. I once worked a shift hours after falling down stairs and breaking my foot. Another time, I worked an entire shift thinking I was having a miscarriage. And I worked through a global pandemic when, at the start, I was so anxious every shift as I honestly didn’t know if work could kill me. I am not a hero or a martyr. I’m just an ER doc and this is what we do; we show up. As the healthcare safety net for America, we suppress our own pain to help alleviate someone else’s. Every one of my partners has similar stories of things they have endured while working. It is what makes them some of the strongest, most courageous and compassionate people I know. Every time I think I cannot possibly work another holiday or shatter another family with the news that their loved one has cancer or call the time of death on another child, I am buoyed by their strength, their encouragement and their friendship. I love clinical medicine and caring for patients. But I truly love the people that I get to work alongside; they are the reason I have made it 20 years.
To the original MEMA crew, the MEMA legends—thank you for taking a chance on a young woman and giving her a job when you weren’t even hiring. You have taught me everything I know and have become some of my very best friends. There is a reason it is called a work family. And to the next MEMA generation, you are smarter and more efficient than I will ever be. Your energy is inspiring and I’m confident that your talents will ensure continued success of our group. I am certain that I do not have another 20 years in me but I am so appreciative of every life that I have touched and has touched me. MEMAs, you are full of integrity, tenacity, resilience, brilliance and fun. Thank you for being my friends, my family, and the best wingmen a girl could ask for.