Neuro Spicy on the Front Line: Dr Pamela Buchanan
Today’s episode of Out of Patients welcomes Dr Pamela Buchanan, an emergency room physician with over 20 years inside American medicine who refuses to sugarcoat what the job demands and what it destroys. She worked straight through COVID as protocols changed by the day and deaths arrived faster than anyone could process. She logged 80 to 100 hour weeks. She isolated from her family to avoid bringing the virus home. Over time, survival began to feel negotiable.
Dr Buchanan speaks openly about burnout as emotional flatline and about physician suicide as a predictable outcome that leadership prefers to ignore. She describes the ER as the catch all for a broken system and explains why chronic care collapses there by design. She shares the reality of trying to access mental health care while still practicing medicine, calling dozens of therapists, getting nowhere, and spending $10,000 to $15,000 out of pocket just to stay alive and functional.
Listeners will hear how neurodivergence shaped her career in emergency medicine, how race and trust intersect inside hospital walls, and why doctors are leaving in waves. This conversation carries clarity, anger, humor, and hard earned truth from someone who stayed long enough to name the damage.
RELATED LINKS
Dr Pamela Buchanan on LinkedIn
Dr Pamela Buchanan on Instagram
KevinMD essay by Dr Pamela Buchanan
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