A typical work week in EM? (also in Kaiser?)

[SxRx]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello,🙂

From Sunday through Saturday work week what is a typical work week in a community ED? If someone can list Mon 7-3, Tue 3-11 etc....it'd give me a good sense of a typical week.

Also, I read that Kaiser's doc's pay are based on 40 hr week. I'm not sure what that means since I assumed all ER docs work 40 weeks.

Thanks!

 

[SxRx]

Is this a dumb question?
All I know is that there may be a night shift mixed in with day shifts within a week and I wanted to get an idea on how much time there is between a day shift day and a nightshift day.

Help me out!

 

[gro2001]

I think no one replied to this post because there is not really such a thing as a 'typical week', since it varies so much by who you work for (and whether you are partner yet if you work at a physician group), how much money you want to make, etc. Many attendings work 3-4 shifts/week. Some more (I've heard of 20+ shifts/month), some less (as little as 1/week). Some people stack all their shifts together and have a week or two off every month.

The mix of night shifts also varies a lot. Some groups have incentives to take night shift (more money, for example), others have people dedicated to working nights exclusively, and yet others split nights between all the people in the group (either equally or with deference to seniority).

For people who work both nights and days, shifts are often stacked in blocks such that you work a few days, have a day off, work a few nights. This makes switching easier. Some places have shifts starting progressively later.

So someone posting any given week of his schedule may not answer your question. Hope this helps.

 

[alreadylernd]

Hello,🙂

From Sunday through Saturday work week what is a typical work week in a community ED? If someone can list Mon 7-3, Tue 3-11 etc....it'd give me a good sense of a typical week.

Also, I read that Kaiser's doc's pay are based on 40 hr week. I'm not sure what that means since I assumed all ER docs work 40 weeks.

Thanks!

Scheduling is entirely dependent on the size of the department (ie: volume). Small places might be 7a-7p, 7p-7a, entirely single coverage. At a busy place, there may be as many as half a dozen "day/evening" shifts staggered throughout the day. Hopefully, if the director is responsive enough, the staffing model attempts to meet the volume distribution in a 24-hour period. And hopefully, a schedule follows a progressive circadian rhythm pattern - later and later shifts.

Weekend-wise too there will be some variation, but you should expect to work about every-other weekend. Therefore a "typical" week really doesn't exist...just like a "typical" day in the ED 😉

 

[SxRx]

IC, thanks for your insights.

How tough has it been for you to get used to working different shifts and changing your sleep pattern so frequently?

Do many physicians take sleeping pills during the day in order to get sleep in preparation for a night shift later that day?

I just recently started thinking about EM and the only thing that really concerns me is the sleep pattern change. I've never been a night person and never even pulled an all nighter in my life since by the time 1AM comes around I'm done for the day. 😳

Am I a poor fit for EM?

 

[gutonc]

I just recently started thinking about EM and the only thing that really concerns me is the sleep pattern change. I've never been a night person and never even pulled an all nighter in my life since by the time 1AM comes around I'm done for the day. 😳

Am I a poor fit for EM?

More like a poor fit for medicine in general. Have you gotten to clinicals yet? Staying up past 1am will be the least of your worries.

Not saying you can't do it, or that it's fun, or that it's something you really need to be aspiring to do. But you need to be able to do it.

 

[SxRx]

More like a poor fit for medicine in general. Have you gotten to clinicals yet? Staying up past 1am will be the least of your worries.

Not saying you can't do it, or that it's fun, or that it's something you really need to be aspiring to do. But you need to be able to do it.

I've done clinical rotations that require calls. So, I have done overnight calls. I've been able to handle them as long as there were things to do and not just sitting around. I think I can handle working 5-6 overnights a month ...for a few years during residency. But, I'm not sure if I can work overnights on a weekly basis for the rest of my career. If I go into other specialties working overnight isn't as frequent as it is in EM, I'm guessing.

 

[gutonc]

I've done clinical rotations that require calls. So, I have done overnight calls. I've been able to handle them as long as there were things to do and not just sitting around. I think I can handle working 5-6 overnights a month ...for a few years during residency. But, I'm not sure if I can work overnights on a weekly basis for the rest of my career. If I go into other specialties working overnight isn't as frequent as it is in EM, I'm guessing.

In-house overnights are rare outside of Gas, EM, OB and Trauma Surg (maybe Crit Care but this is still rare) once you get past residency, that is correct. At least in EM, the overnights are the entire workday not 1/3 - 1/2 of your work day like they will be in other specialties requiring call.

Outside of EM (and maybe Hospitalist work) pretty much everyone will be on call for some portion of their career. This may entail just having your pager on and never having to answer it (hey there Derm) or may mean getting called in to the hospital every night you're on call (wazzup Gen Surg?) or something in the middle (answering outpatient, ER, consult calls every night but only having to go in on occasion).