SGEM Xtra: Career Advice from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Date: July 9, 2025 Guest Skeptics: Dr. Cindy Bitter is an Associate Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Saint Louis University. She has a Master’s in Bioethics, and she is passionate about EM capacity building and physician resilience, especially improving wellness through time in nature.    Dr. Amy Bi is a graduate from the SSM Health Saint Louis University Emergency Medicine residency and the University of Missouri School of Medicine. She is interested in continuing medical education, orange theory, and travelling. This is an SGEM Xtra episode, which takes us back to the late '90s to explore the intersection of pop culture and professional practice through the lens of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's similar to the episodes we did about Star Trek, Top Gun, Dark Knight, Ted Lasso, and The Pitt. Cindy reached out to me about a presentation she made at the HumanisEM conference. It's an interdisciplinary conference that explores the intersections of the Health Humanities and Emergency Medicine, started in 2023. The presentation at the conference was inspired by a conversation with female residents about why Buffy remains a must-watch show for young professionals, especially in medicine. In the lecture, we explore lessons from the show that resonate with emergency physicians and healthcare professionals. Click on the LINK for a copy of the slides. There may be some people like me who are not familiar with the show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered in 1997 and ran for seven seasons. Its central premise was that the seemingly dumb blonde chick who is the first to get killed in horror movies is trained to fight back. Ultimately, the monsters were symbols of the challenges we face on the way to growing up and creating a meaningful life. The show hid a healthy dose of existential philosophy under the quips, music, and 90s fashion, and continues to gain fans more than 20 years after it ended. Career Advice from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Honour Your Calling Quote: “You talk about slaying like it’s a job, it’s not. It’s who you are”. What’s My Line? Part 2; S2, ep 10. Writer: Marti Noxon Our path in medicine is somewhat different than the “one girl in all the world” who is destined to fight the forces of darkness, but there are analogies. Buffy sometimes struggles with her calling but ultimately accepts her path (Prophecy Girl). And she shows that this is not a single event, but something she chooses every day (What’s My Line, Anne, Amends). We come to medicine with our own set of strengths and skills, choose our path, and actively reaffirm it as we complete years of education and residency training. There are certainly challenges in our healthcare system, but there is also connection and sometimes even joy. Meeting Challenges Quote: “Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So, what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.” Becoming, part 1; S2, ep 22. Writer: Joss Whedon Quote: “From now on, we won’t just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. There’s only one thing in this world more powerful than evil, and that’s us.” Bring on the Night; S7, ep 10. Writer: Marti Noxon with Douglas Petrie Medical school, residency, and even attending life are filled with learning from students, residents, coworkers, nurses, colleagues, and administrators. We must incorporate new evidence into our practice, learn from mistakes, and improve for future encounters. New situations come at us all the time; it’s how we strategize and confront them that counts. That might mean reading up on disease presentations we do not see often or practicing high-acuity, low-occurrence procedures. Knowing we are prepared for the challenges we s...