Military EM

[Dr. Wexler]

I apologize in advance if this topic has been covered already, but I searched and didn't find exactly what I was looking for.

I was wondering what the work schedule for EM is in a military setting. It seems the consensus is that in the civialian world, if you can deal with shift work, EM great schedule-wise. Is the same true in the military? (I'm guessing not.)

1) What are the schedules of stateside EM docs like when there are no major deployments underway.

2)What are the schedules of both stateside and deployed EM docs like when a major deployment is underway(like right now). I would assume stateside docs are considerably busier because many of their colleagues are overseas, right? And that overseas they are pulling 12 hr shifts 7x/week.

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[Homunculus]

Originally posted by flynnt
I apologize in advance if this topic has been covered already, but I searched and didn't find exactly what I was looking for.

I was wondering what the work schedule for EM is in a military setting. It seems the consensus is that in the civialian world, if you can deal with shift work, EM great schedule-wise. Is the same true in the military? (I'm guessing not.)

1) What are the schedules of stateside EM docs like when there are no major deployments underway.

2)What are the schedules of both stateside and deployed EM docs like when a major deployment is underway(like right now). I would assume stateside docs are considerably busier because many of their colleagues are overseas, right? And that overseas they are pulling 12 hr shifts 7x/week.

1) as far as i know, and this is from talking with students that have rotated through BAMC, they work shifts just like civilian ED docs do.

2) i'm not sure about the deployed doc's schedules, but the civilian docs work pretty much the same, due to the backfill and reserve activation.

keep in mind this is at a level 1 trauma center, some places will probably be a little different.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

Just keep in mind that the shifts you are assigned to keep changing. It's not like you work the same shift for a couple months at a time. You might do 0700-1500 for a couple days, then get switched to 2300-0700 for a week, then it's back to 1500-2300 . . . this wreaks havoc with any kind of regular sleep schedule. Plus, even when you work swing or night shifts you are often still expected to attend lectures, etc that are during the morning or daytime and don't coincide well with your particular shift.