With the clock ticking for Dr. Bartsch, she decided to “get creative” in her search for a position that would fulfill her contractual obligations. Six months into her search, she found a job back in Wyoming, allowing her to breathe a deep sigh of relief as she finishes her fellowship year.

For Dr. Wright Becker, navigating Wyoming’s current emergency medicine workforce issue—and improving the outlook for rural emergency medicine as a whole—has become a personal quest. After surviving cancer in 2019 and losing a colleague in a motorcycle accident, she was in a reflective state when this Wyoming workforce problem landed in her lap. “God kept me on Earth for something,” she explained. “Maybe I should work on this.” 

And so, she is. Dr. Wright Becker packed up her family and moved them to West Virginia, where she is developing an emergency academic program with focus on rural medicine inspired by her time in Wyoming. She hopes her program and research will help develop some long-term solutions for rural acute care. At the same time, she remains devoted to the students and residents she mentored in her home state and she is still working closely with her WWAMI colleagues back in Wyoming to look for solutions.

“I think what’s going on in Wyoming is the crux of what’s going on [nationally],” she said.  “Somehow, this tiny state is having the [emergency medicine] workforce issues play out in the biggest, baddest way.” 

Jordan Grantham is senior content manager at ACEP.