Political Priorities, Voting, and Political Action Committee Engagement of Emergency Medicine Trainees: A National Survey

Introduction: Medicine is increasingly influenced by politics, but physicians have historically had lower voter turnout than the general public. Turnout is even lower for younger voters. Little is known about the political interests, voting activity, or political action committee (PAC) involvement of emergency physicians in training. We evaluated EM trainees ’ political priorities, use of and barriers to voting, and engagement with an emergency medicine (EM) PAC.Methods: Resident/medical student Emergency Medicine Residents ’ Association members were emailed a survey between October–November 2018. Questions involved political priorities, perspective on single-payer healthcare, voting knowledge/behavior, and EM PACs participation. We analyzed data using descriptive statistics.Results: Survey participants included 1,241 fully responding medical students and residents, with a calculated response rate of 20%. The top three healthcare priorities were as follows: 1) high...
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research