“I remember I wrote in my application for residency that, in emergency medicine, you’re the first line and you see people on their worst days,” says Jennifer Chen, MD. “I think that really kind of spoke to me — that part of emergency medicine — and also, the lifestyle is great!”
Chen, a third-year resident at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in UNLV Department of Emergency Medicine, loves the excitement of her specialty, but also relishes the time for a personal life that it affords. “I love medicine,” she says, “but I want to be able to live my life too. And the schedule that you get with EM [emergency medicine] allows me to focus on my family, friends, and interests, but also work in a field that I really enjoy.”
Chen moved to Las Vegas when she was 5 years old and has been in Nevada ever since. After obtaining her undergraduate degree from UNLV, she completed medical school at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine before returning to the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in Las Vegas for her residency.
“My parents still live here [Las Vegas] and throughout med school, my dad’s health kind of declined and so I decided that I definitely wanted to come back here so I could be closer to them. It was one of my main motivating factors, but also, I don’t really see myself leaving Vegas until I retire.”
Although emergency medicine fits her life perfectly now, it was not necessarily where her interest was in the beginning. “I actually scribed in the ER at [Sunrise Hospital Pediatrics] toward the end of college. And then I was even a research assistant for the UNLV EM program in college,” says Dr. Chen. “So, I’ve been around EM, not really because I was interested in the field before med school but because it provided good opportunities ... I tried to keep my options open, but I found myself gravitating towards EM, I think first, because it’s really exciting, and I definitely feel like I would get quite bored working in a clinic every day.”
The excitement of emergency medicine doesn’t always mean a resident feels like they have everything under control. The challenges are ever-present.
“As residents, the imposter syndrome [can come in],” says Chen. “... Nobody walks into their work days feeling like they’re 100% ready and that they 100% know everything. I think we go into all of our shifts, every single day, a little bit nervous, and a little bit scared of what we’re going to face. Because all of us just want to help. But it’s a big responsibility, you know?”
Despite the doubts that may creep in, Chen is keenly aware of the impact that our resident physicians have in this community.
“We get to see a very specific population of Vegas at UMC [University Medical Center], and it’s the population that needs our help the most. I think it gives us the chance to really make a difference ... Our patients are sick. Most don’t have healthcare. They come to us when they have no other choice, which not only provides us great medical training, but I think it creates a huge impact in this part of town.”
Not only that, but in the emergency room, they feel the impact directly of the physician shortage in our state. “We’re basically functioning as primary care for them,” says Dr. Chen, “which is not what the ER is made to be. Vegas also needs a lot more specialty physicians ... we need to bring in these specialties that we’re sending out to California and Arizona all the time because we only have a handful of specialists in certain fields ... We also need to have a much more robust primary care system here. Everyone needs to be able to see a primary care doctor, and not in the two to three months that even I’m booking just to get my yearly checkups done.”
Beyond residency, Chen has plans to stay in our community with two different hospital systems, “which I’m super excited about because it’s different from UMC and ... I get to see all of the Valley. I’m hoping that in the future, I can maybe get into academics too.”
