A web gallery to show the real faces of health professionals in the fight against coronavirus

The international Emergency Medicine Day, launched by EUSEM, European Society for Emergency Medicine, is coming back on May 27, for its third consecutive year.
During the Covid19 pandemic, Emergency medicine once again finds itself on the front line, saving lives all over the globe as emergency doctors and nurses work around the clock through endless shifts to provide care and assistance to both Covid and non-Covid patients. Qualified medical competence, adequate equipment and technical devices along with shared and spot-on protocols are truly saving lives in our hospitals throughout this crisis.
Get your face in and send us your end of shift picture.
Help us ask for more
27 May is Emergency Medicine Day: This year the international campaign, at its third edition, celebrates the Emergency Medicine workforce: doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals who devoted their existence to saving other people’s lives in emergency situations.
Our campaign shows the real faces of emergency professionals from around the world in the web gallery that EMDAY2020 has collected through a web app launched last March, at the beginning of the pandemic. Doctors and nurses sent photos of their end-of-shift face, and the burden of fatigue and passion, satisfaction and frustration, anxiety and gratification that comes along with their rescuing lives job. Pictures also include the healthcare professionals’ name and clock out time, to show their 24-hour endurance in emergency care in an effort never to leave a vital service uncovered.
The 2020 theme: For an effective emergency system, ask for more: more doctors, more nurses, more services
The shortage of doctors and nurses in emergency-urgency medicine is a global issue affecting many countries around the world. The lack of professionals jeopardizes the universal right to health, for there are not enough resources to guarantee the most effective treatment in the shortest possible time. We need more doctors, more nurses and more services because the right to medical assistance should be a real possibility for everyone. Always, but even more so during and after the Covid days.
„When we chose the 2020 theme, we could have never imagined that within a few months, a pandemic would break out making our request ever more crucial. In the countries most affected by SARS-Cov2 – says Roberta Petrino, Emergency physician and EMDAY Coordinator – the Emergency medical system, both pre-hospital and emergency departments, had to face a situation of disaster medicine, growing exponentially for several weeks. They had to organize pathways, implement the correct use of PPE, allocate and manage human and material resources, manage critical patients, adapting to the events according to safety and efficacy standards. It is clear that where there is sufficient and competent personnel, where facilities are well equipped, modern and prepared for unexpected big events, everything went smoother and had a better outcome„.
It is time we all raise our voice to ask for more resources, more doctors, more nurses, and more facilities for the Emergency Medical System.
Why May 27?
Emergency Medicine Day takes place on 27 May, the day that Emergency Medicine in Europe came to be back in 1994, London, when a group of doctors engaged in the development of emergency care. Representing several European countries, they signed the founding act of the European Society for Emergency Medicine with the aim to build a system model able to guarantee to all European citizens a professional, competent and timely response to any acute health emergency condition.
The international Emergency Medicine Day, has been launched by EUSEM, European Society for Emergency Medicine, and is celebrated every year on 27 may, since 2018. the goal is to raise awareness of citizens and institutions of how a well-organized Emergency Medicine System is able to increase the possibility of survival of patients, reduce the rate of disability after medical emergencies, and effectively help containing the economic costs of emergencies. For these reasons, the service must be free and accessible to everyone in the world and must meet the highest possible quality standards.
#EmergencyMedicineDay
For more information:
Emergency Medicine Day Press Office
pressoffice@emergencymedicine-day.org