Say a doc works a 16-hours shift. Doesnt that mean that he will have a 16 hours break after he finishes his work ? That is enough to get some good sleep and do many other things so what am i missing ?
Say a doc works a 16-hours shift. Doesnt that mean that he will have a 16 hours break after he finishes his work ? That is enough to get some good sleep and do many other things so what am i missing ?
Since when are there 32 hours in a day?
It's not regulated like that, especially after residency when your hours can essentially be as brutal as you allow them to be in many cases.Say a doc works a 16-hours shift. Doesnt that mean that he will have a 16 hours break after he finishes his work ? That is enough to get some good sleep and do many other things so what am i missing ?
To be fair, OP did say "get some good sleep and do many other things," which I would assume includes family and other obligations.Even if that were true, many doctors have these things called families and other obligations that prevent them from just falling asleep right when they get off from their shift.
So its my understanding of how shifts work which was wrong. So in your 7 am till 11 pm example, who works after 11 pm ? It cannot be that nobody does since hospitals must operate 24/7 right? And why does that person get to work only 8 hours / day while the first doctor works for 16 hours ?No. If you work a 16 hr shift (e.g. from 7 am to 11 pm), you're expected to be back at 7 am the next day. If you work a 30 hr shift (e.g. from 7 am to 1 pm), you're typically off until 7 am the next day.
So its my understanding of how shifts work which was wrong. So in your 7 am till 11 pm example, who works after 11 pm ? It cannot be that nobody does since hospitals must operate 24/7 right? And why does that person get to work only 8 hours / day while the first doctor works for 16 hours ?
So its my understanding of how shifts work which was wrong. So in your 7 am till 11 pm example, who works after 11 pm ? It cannot be that nobody does since hospitals must operate 24/7 right? And why does that person get to work only 8 hours / day while the first doctor works for 16 hours ?
What is that ?Overlap in schedules.
What is that ?
So its my understanding of how shifts work which was wrong. So in your 7 am till 11 pm example, who works after 11 pm ? It cannot be that nobody does since hospitals must operate 24/7 right? And why does that person get to work only 8 hours / day while the first doctor works for 16 hours ?
Can we shoot the person who decided that 12-16 hour shifts were a good idea for a mentally demanding field.
The shifts just don't make sense to me.16 hr shifts really aren't bad. The tail end of a 30 is difficult if you don't get to sleep at all (though I've only had to do the latter as a student thus far)
The shifts just don't make sense to me.
Which would make sense if the patient were only present at the hospital for 16 hours and under your care. When it comes to in-patient issues then you're talking about a series of days. The problem then becomes one of maintaining health standards when "passing off" between physicians occurs so that care does not become markedly diminished. The nature of the beast is imperfect, however requiring physicians to give care when their own mental acuity is on a downhill trajectory s/p 8-12 hours then you're encouraging liabilities to occur, not preventing them. I understand that doctors have remarkable focus, however I've yet to see any literature affirming that a doctor's clinical clarity is unchanged at the eleventh hour.Every time you leave, someone new who has not known the patient for the past however long is now responsible for the care of that patient and has to be brought up to speed. This is never done flawlessly or with anywhere near the same amount of information the prior physician had. Quality patient care is a balancing act between patient handoffs and fatigue from long shifts. I guarantee you i provide better care for my patients 16 hours into my shift than night float does at any point during theirs. It's the nature of the beast
Which would make sense if the patient were only present at the hospital for 16 hours and under your care. When it comes to in-patient issues then you're talking about a series of days. The problem then becomes one of maintaining health standards when "passing off" between physicians occurs so that care does not become markedly diminished. The nature of the beast is imperfect, however requiring physicians to give care when their own mental acuity is on a downhill trajectory s/p 8-12 hours then you're encouraging liabilities to occur, not preventing them. I understand that doctors have remarkable focus, however I've yet to see any literature affirming that a doctor's clinical clarity is unchanged at the eleventh hour.
16 hr shifts really aren't bad. The tail end of a 30 is difficult if you don't get to sleep at all (though I've only had to do the latter as a student thus far)
I thought 12 hour shifts were stat quo. I remember ER shifts being 10 and Unit Floors being 12.No one said "clinical clarity" is at 100% at the end of a long shift. But is whatever marginal decrease in "clinical clarity" likely to outweigh the huge discrepancy in prior knowledge of the patient's baseline, presentation, exam, response to therapy, etc? Not a chance in the world. There's a reason why night float's purpose tends to be "put out fires and make sure people don't die in the middle of the night". In clinical settings where patients' status is more volatile (ICU, postoperatively), we tend to do either long call (30 hr) or 12 hour shifts
How many of those do you do in, say, two weeks time?
I thought 12 hour shifts were stat quo. I remember ER shifts being 10 and Unit Floors being 12.
Some people love the grind, but I don't know how.
Overlaps in shifts are not the correct answer. Many places will have someone cover just the 8 hours in between the 16 hour shift or something like that (sure, there's some overlap, but that doesn't explain why 2 people aren't just trading 16 hour shifts back and forth). Humans have sleep cycles that don't like to be messed with. Working on and off every other 16 hours would be very hard on the body and mind. Working simply nights consistently is already hard enough on many people.So its my understanding of how shifts work which was wrong. So in your 7 am till 11 pm example, who works after 11 pm ? It cannot be that nobody does since hospitals must operate 24/7 right? And why does that person get to work only 8 hours / day while the first doctor works for 16 hours ?