Differences in Night Float schedule- brutality or the norm?

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I was looking over some program info that I picked up on the trail and just noticed that one program's night float schedule is a bit different that the others in the fact that in addition to S-Th shifts, they work 9-5 on Friday and only have Sat. off. Other programs NF are generally S-Th ending Fri. early am.

Can anyone comment on working a 6 shift NF schedule? Seems brutal. The schedule lists the Thurs. shift as going from 5p-7a and then the Fri. shift going from 9am-4.30pm making it exactly 80hrs/wk. I'm assuming that 2 hrs on Fri. AM is to sleep?

Would a schedule like this keep you from ranking the program?

All comments/opinions on this schedule appreciated. Gracias.

 

[rayofdiana]

So, that's kind of like a 24 hr call shift, yes? With a 2 hr nap?

It's true that most programs with night float don't do that. I'm sure it's not very fun while you're finishing up those last few hours, but it doesn't seem like a reason not to rank a program. If you love other aspects of the program, it's probably worth suffering 1 day a week for a few months during your 4 years of residency. If they are regularly going over 80 hrs on that rotation and the program seems to think it's okay, that's a different story.

Our program has Friday am continuity clinic every other week when on night float, so you typically stay until around noon on those days. It's not anyone's favorite, but we often go out to brunch after as a team to cheer ourselves up! As it turns out, the people you work with and the team mentality is waaay more important than schedule details.

Good luck!