Is anyone else making shift lengths a huge factor in their rank list? The idea of doing all 12s just seems like a beat down, especially multiple days in a row.
It has become much more of a factor for me as the season has progressed - as I have spoken with residents and reflected upon my own rotation experiences and what matters most to me. On EM rotations, I have done 9's (with overlap for cleanup, allowing us to leave at 9 hours, usually) and 12's without overlap (often led to staying 13 hours). When I was doing 9's, I was able to live my life outside of work
every single day. I could drive to a nice park and exercise outside before or after shifts. I could stop at the grocery store afterwards. Heck, I even had time to shower, eat a good dinner, pack a good lunch for my shift, and have a good Skype conversation with the S.O. (I was on an away rotation) before heading into work. I really got to know the city while I was there. When I worked all 12's, it was drive home from the shift, throw a frozen meal in the microwave while I took a quick shower, shovel it down while having a 5-minute, bleary-eyed chat with the S.O. on Skype (another away rotation), and then hit the sack. I found that I got less sleep on this rotation, too, despite doing almost nothing but work and sleep on my days with shifts. My days were crammed full, and I had no time to insert some things I needed or wanted to do without further sacrificing sleep. After several days in a row, I was dying to live my life, lol. I wish I had gotten more time to explore the area.
When talking to residents at social events, it seemed to me that those at programs with shorter shift lengths (9's, 10's) felt like they had more time for themselves (and with their families/kids/spouses) than they thought they would during residency, while at least one resident at a 12-hour shift program told me that he has had less time than he thought he would have (despite having almost half the month "off").
This all really comes down to personal preference, though. Some folks really like having more full days off. Some people like having a little time for themselves every day, even if it may mean fewer full days off. I seem to fall into the latter camp. A few programs on my list that are 12's only are really killing me, because I love the locations and other aspects of the programs, but I am just wondering if being in those awesome locations would be worth possibly dreading going into work...I know, "boo hoo," EM still has one of the kinder schedules for residency, 12's or otherwise, but I think shift length is an important consideration for some people.