Trailblazing Off the Beaten Track - Combining Emergency and Expedition Medicine

At the World Extreme Medicine Conference, Ffyon Smith (née Davies) – A&E doctor, WEM faculty member, and voice of the WEM podcast – shares her candid career journey through medicine, burnout, and expedition work.

In this reflective session, Ffyon explores how setbacks, alternative career paths, and the outdoors helped her rediscover balance and purpose. From rejecting a traditional training pathway to embracing expedition medicine, HEMS, and Mountain Rescue, she outlines what it takes to build a career – and a life – that feels sustainable.

This session touches on:

Navigating setbacks and burnout in emergency medicine
The role of expedition medicine in rekindling clinical passion
Exploring the CESR pathway as an alternative to traditional specialty training
Lessons from HEMS and Mountain Rescue: self, team, patient
Practical frameworks for combining medicine with adventure – and staying happy along the way

For anyone questioning the “training treadmill” or seeking ways to align career with personal passions, this talk is an honest, insightful case study.

More Information

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Recognise the personal and professional challenges that can lead to burnout in emergency medicine.
Evaluate the potential benefits of expedition and wilderness medicine as complementary experiences to clinical careers.
Describe the CESR (Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration) pathway and how it differs from traditional training routes.
Apply principles from prehospital and expedition environments (e.g., prioritising self–team–patient) to support resilience and sustainable practice.
Reflect on how to balance clinical ambitions with personal wellbeing, relationships, and passions outside of medicine.