Lucy199 Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I'm a second year student currently and I am really leaning towards Emergency Med. I have rotated through once and have an elective setup for a few months from now. I am very well aware of the dynamics of emergency department scheduling and what my future career may look like (which I am about 80% okay with). I am just curious as to whether or not you guys have gotten used to your schedules, or not. Have you come to peace with working some holidays and missing some family events that fall outside of normal (m-f 8-5) working hours. I am by no means looking for "normal" schedule, simply just trying to see how you all feel about your specific situations.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAAdmission Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 If you work 3 twelve hours shifts, you have something like 100 days off a year. Holidays you get used to missing; for religious holidays there are often people of another faith very happy to make time and a half and trade your shift. Family events you should almost always be able to schedule around, as long as you work with decent humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaepora Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I've worked many different schedules - 3x12s, rotating days nights, weekends, 5x8s, call rotations, etc. Far and away the best in my opinion is 3x12s. I don't care about working weekend shifts with this schedule because you still have so much free time outside of work. I don't mind nights as an APP because they're usually slower paced and more relaxed. Call is no biggie. 3x12s means you are only working 43% of the year. You are off way more than you're at work! Can't beat it. And as long as at the holiday schedule is done fairly, you only rarely miss the important ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy199 Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 thank you both for the replies. This is definitely reassuring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted October 17, 2018 Moderator Share Posted October 17, 2018 the best is 6 24s. 144 hrs/month and 24-25 days off/month I have worked all the options. 4 tens is ok, 3 12s is ok. 5 8s blows. all nights is better than a rotating schedule. I currently work 3 out of 4 saturdays, but only work 1 friday/month. If I want a saturday off I can request it off in advance for a concert or whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ERCat Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Having to work weekends and holidays is a pain in the ass... things got better when I had to “train” my family to not give me so much crap for it, and to try to work around my schedule. As far as the irregularities in the schedule, like flopping between morning and afternoon shifts, I like that because it’s always something new to keep things fresh. No day ever feels the same! I work thirteen 12 hour shifts a month. That means I have seventeen days of time off on the average month. THAT is amazing and makes all of the downsides completely worth it. Talk about quality of life! Last week I worked two days, then went to California for the rest of the week. I worked today and yesterday, but have the rest of the week (Wednesday through Sunday) completely off. Sure, I could work in family medicine and have weekends and holidays off, but I would also be chugging along going to work Monday through Friday 9-5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator ventana Posted October 18, 2018 Moderator Share Posted October 18, 2018 did 3.5 years of overnights in the USAF - Sunday Thursday 11p-6:30am worked fine Then went to PA school and then tried ED repeatedly..... never could accept the schedule - course it was no where near consistent at all - was a few nights on, then off, then a day shift, then a swing shift, or even worse was just a blended 2/3 shift that the PA would have to stay till the ED quiet down - sometime 15 hour days... insane I might have had a chance if they provided a very consistent block of nights to work, but all over the place shifts are inhumane... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmdpac Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 1 hour ago, ventana said: I might have had a chance if they provided a very consistent block of nights to work, but all over the place shifts are inhumane... This. I switched to nights simply because my employer offers a set night schedule. Four on, four off. Same hours each shift. Had I continued with day work it would've been more of what Ventana described: different shifts each day with sometime late shifts and a quick turnaround A.M start. That's more annoying than working straight nights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohiovolffemtp Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 A couple of points: There are MANY variations on ED schedules: some only have PA shifts during busy hours, typically mid-late morning to midnight-ish, some have 24 hour coverage with rotation schedules. At my current main job we have 5 PA shifts/day. But, 2 folks split the overnights and a colleague and I split the 15:30-01:30 shift. There's no policy, just gratitude from the lead PA that 40% of the shifts are filled and the other folks only rotate between the other 3. Other jobs have schedules that pretty much guarantee missing family time, e.g. 24/48 of many firefighters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetMeOuttaThisMess Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Short answer, NO. Especially when we started going to two shifts per day. My personally dx’d ADHD caused me to lose interest after 10 hours max. 12 hour shift? Best of luck to you patients, especially if I had to stay awake after 11 pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.