Number of Shifts and Hours per Month as EM Residents

[meganine]

Hi. I would like to get an idea from the members of this forum about how many shifts and hours per month you all work as emergency medicine residents. If possible, could people post that information and what programs they correspond to? I am interested in the distribution across the spectrum of scheduling and hours. It is very hard to find this information online. Thanks.

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[BoardingDoc]

Hours per month is capped at 240 for EM (60/wk). As for specific details about individual programs' shift structures, the vast majority of the reviews in the thread below already have this information.

The Mother of All Residency Reviews Stickies

 

[Biza]

My program is 18 12hr shifts, I have seen up to 21 shifts with shorter hours. Remember that there are tons of "outside the ED" obligations to fulfill so you will still be super busy no matter how many shifts you have.

 

[carbonizedeyesockets]

As an intern it was 20-22 ten hour shifts per 4 week block. As a 2 and 3 it was 20-22 8 hour shifts. We did have a total of 28 12 hour shifts (two 4 week blocks).

 

[DO3]

Hi. I would like to get an idea from the members of this forum about how many shifts and hours per month you all work as emergency medicine residents. If possible, could people post that information and what programs they correspond to? I am interested in the distribution across the spectrum of scheduling and hours. It is very hard to find this information online. Thanks.

Widely variable. 160 - 216hrs a month, 15-23 shifts a month depending on PGY year. Some programs you work the same number of shifts each year. Some you work more as an intern and less as an upper level. Some you work 12s as interns and 8s, 9s, 10s as an upper level. There’s no consistency.

Here’s a paper from 2015. Emergency medicine resident clinical hours: a national survey. - PubMed - NCBI

Range of clinical EM hours ranged from 2670 - 5112 over 3 year programs. It’s crazy how wide the variation is.

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

18-20 shifts, about half 12s and half 8s

 

[Angry Birds]

Man, I'm so grateful--my residency was on the lower end of these estimates.

 

[Buckeye1992]

My residency does 18-10s

 

[Taco-tsubo]

Search "EMRA Match" and you'll get the EMRA-made list of all residency programs. On most of the "Info" pages there will be how many shifts they have and how long their shifts are. Usually pretty accurate, but not 100%.

P.S. My residency is 18 shifts of 10 hours each.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

20 as a pgy1
19 as a pgy2
18 as a pgy3
All 9s

 

[thegenius]

Hours per month is capped at 240 for EM (60/wk). As for specific details about individual programs' shift structures, the vast majority of the reviews in the thread below already have this information.

The Mother of All Residency Reviews Stickies

And strictly adhered too as well.

My program (Cornell/Columbia) we did 12 hr shifts x20/month for the first 3 years. 4th year we did something like 12 hr shifts x16 for the 4th year (more or less).

You should go to a program where you work a lot. Then you see a lot, and you will be a better doctor. Same for all fields in medicine. Work more, see more

 

[deleted547339]

And strictly adhered too as well.

My program (Cornell/Columbia) we did 12 hr shifts x20/month for the first 3 years. 4th year we did something like 12 hr shifts x16 for the 4th year (more or less).

You should go to a program where you work a lot. Then you see a lot, and you will be a better doctor. Same for all fields in medicine. Work more, see more

Not necessarily. More hours does not always mean more patients. I agree that you should go to a program where you will see a lot of patients, but that doesn’t exactly mean what you said.

 

[cyanide12345678]

And strictly adhered too as well.

My program (Cornell/Columbia) we did 12 hr shifts x20/month for the first 3 years. 4th year we did something like 12 hr shifts x16 for the 4th year (more or less).

You should go to a program where you work a lot. Then you see a lot, and you will be a better doctor. Same for all fields in medicine. Work more, see more

In our program we do 20 10s first year and 18 10s 2nd and third year in a 4 week period.

You should go to a program where you are busy when you're there, but i don't think you should work a ridiculously number of shifts. I work 18 as a third year, gives me enough time to moonlight 2-3 shifts a month in the community. Working independently is far better learning, plus the 2-3k a shift is nice. I don't think id be moonlighting if my program itself made me do 20-21 shifts a month.