What is the difference between call, night call, and night float? What are the ranges an intern must do these among IM programs?
I'm not too familiar with all the intricacies of the Internal Medicine call system. They have terms like ..."cap," etc. with which I'm unfamiliar.
The cap is the maximum number of new admissions/transfers an intern or the team can take on one call. The reason surgical residents don't have a cap (I believe) is because most of the surgery admissions on-call are "front loaded" - if not going directly to the OR, they will be tomorrow or the day after. Moreover, there's simply a larger number of IM admissions, so there has to be a limit.
Of course, you mentioned one paragraph above that medicine has more teams. There may be more patients per surgical team, but I would wager there are more total medicine admissions.And more admissions in Medicine? Please. I've seen their services here - e.g. at our county hospital, they tend to average between 5-15 patients on their census. We average 20-50.
Of course, you mentioned one paragraph above that medicine has more teams. There may be more patients per surgical team, but I would wager there are more total medicine admissions.
I imagine the worst of that is on trauma - I can only imagine how demoralizing it must be to work that hard for so few operative opportunities.I must reiterate that the majority of admissions to the surgery service DO NOT go to the OR during that hospital stay. That's a rather romantic notion - if only it were true!
I imagine the worst of that is on trauma - I can only imagine how demoralizing it must be to work that hard for so few operative opportunities.
I imagine the worst of that is on trauma - I can only imagine how demoralizing it must be to work that hard for so few operative opportunities.
Oh, and sorry for the derailment, I can answer this. "Call," "night call," and "long call" are generally synonymous - "call" tends to simply refer to a period in which you or your team is taking admissions, and "night/long call" is the 24 hour/overnight period in which you are doing so. There are usually one or two "day call" or "short call" days during a call cycle, during which you take admissions before 5 pm. And "night float" is a resident or team who works overnight on duties that vary from program to program - taking admissions, taking overflow admissions, doing cross-cover, or whatever.What is the difference between call, night call, and night float? What are the ranges an intern must do these among IM programs?
This patient population is made all the more demanding secondary to their never ending social issues that landed them on the trauma service in the first place. Good luck getting a rehab bed or home IV ABX without an act of Congress. And there aren't enough narcotics in the world to treat some of these people. So glad my trauma days as primary service are done.
What is the difference between call, night call, and night float? What are the ranges an intern must do these among IM programs?
Actually, I was being sarcastic. I know what the Medicine "cap" is. 🙂
The reason we don't have a cap is we don't have enough teams to spread the load - often there's only one team on call every night, not multiple ones like in Medicine. And many of our patients are non-operative - besides the admissions for elective cases, many admissions (abdominal pain, SBO, wound infection, etc.) are just for non-op management.
And more admissions in Medicine? Please. I've seen their services here - e.g. at our county hospital, they tend to average between 5-15 patients on their census. We average 20-50.