Daniel Jourdan, MD, NRP

Emergency Medicine has always been my calling – four years as a special operations soldier, five as a street paramedic and now my third year of residency – I knew I wanted to do EM and continue operating on the frontlines of medicine even before starting undergrad. As such, it has been my pleasure to serve on the RAMS Board the past few years. It enabled me to be involved in a multitude of projects from starting an online residency fair in response to COVID travel restrictions to advocating for better understanding of and guidelines for Advance Practice Providers in Emergency Departments. However, the challenges facing the specialty continue to grow: an uncertain future job market, unchecked growth of residency training slots, prolonged boarding, diminishing psychiatric resources and continued midlevel encroachment. All factors which certainly contributed to the precipitous drop in EM applicants over the past two years. Yet, these challenges are not insurmountable. I am running for President of RAMS because I believe we need to do more in the face of these challenges. Historically, the RAMS Board has focused its time and efforts contributing to committee objectives and individual projects instead of planning, advocacy and leadership. With the avalanche of challenges facing the profession, I think it more important than ever that the elected leaders of RAMS focus their efforts on meeting the needs of its members with strategic efforts and goal driven advocacy. As President, I will ensure our members have a spot at the table where decisions regarding their future are being made and ensure solutions incorporate our input. I will continue to advocate for limits on midlevel encroachment, stricter guidelines on residency program growth and against the further corporatization of medicine. Most important, I will ensure RAMS continues to meet its members where they are – providing resources, opportunities and advocacy in line with our members’ needs.