Jeffrey R Stowell1, Taher T Vohra2, Samuel D Luber1. 1. Department of Emergency Medicine, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas. 2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Emergency medicine (EM) residency programs have significant scheduling flexibility. As a result, there is potentially significant variation in scheduling practices. Few studies have previously sought to describe this variation. It is unknown how this affects training time in the emergency department. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe the current variation in clinical training practices through clinical hour, shift length, and rotation survey data. METHODS: A 21-item questionnaire was distributed to all allopathic EM training programs utilizing an online survey during the 2011-2012 academic year. Questions included demographic data, number of EM rotations per year, shifts, average hours, shift length, and scheduling practices. RESULTS: A total of 122 responses were received and 82 programs were analyzed (51.6% of 159 allopathic programs). EM residents work, on average, 45.50 h per week. Postgraduate year 1-3 programs utilizing 28-day schedules averaged two additional EM rotations and 338.2 more clinical EM hours compared with calendar-month rotations. The residents of 4-year programs work approximately 1300 additional hours during residency, with an average of 1279.26 h and 7.9 clinical EM rotations in the fourth year. Clinical hour ranges of 2670-5112 and 4248-6113 were observed for 3-year and 4-year programs, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There are different scheduling modalities used to create resident schedules. This flexibility results in a large amount of diversity in scheduling practices, with certain patterns allowing for significantly more clinical time. This may result in a vastly different training experience for EM residents.
BACKGROUND: Emergency medicine (EM) residency programs have significant scheduling flexibility. As a result, there is potentially significant variation in scheduling practices. Few studies have previously sought to describe this variation. It is unknown how this affects training time in the emergency department. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to describe the current variation in clinical training practices through clinical hour, shift length, and rotation survey data. METHODS: A 21-item questionnaire was distributed to all allopathic EM training programs utilizing an online survey during the 2011-2012 academic year. Questions included demographic data, number of EM rotations per year, shifts, average hours, shift length, and scheduling practices. RESULTS: A total of 122 responses were received and 82 programs were analyzed (51.6% of 159 allopathic programs). EM residents work, on average, 45.50 h per week. Postgraduate year 1-3 programs utilizing 28-day schedules averaged two additional EM rotations and 338.2 more clinical EM hours compared with calendar-month rotations. The residents of 4-year programs work approximately 1300 additional hours during residency, with an average of 1279.26 h and 7.9 clinical EM rotations in the fourth year. Clinical hour ranges of 2670-5112 and 4248-6113 were observed for 3-year and 4-year programs, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: There are different scheduling modalities used to create resident schedules. This flexibility results in a large amount of diversity in scheduling practices, with certain patterns allowing for significantly more clinical time. This may result in a vastly different training experience for EM residents.
Authors: Mary E McLean; Adrian A Cotarelo; Thomas A Huls; Abbas Husain; Emily A Hillman; Lukasz D Cygan; Linette O Archer; Jennifer Beck-Esmay; Shannon M Burke; Angela I Carrick; Angela S Chen; Robert J Hyde; Vytas P Karalius; Eric Lee; Joel C Park; Angela M Pugliese; Morgan D Wilbanks; Amanda Young; Miriam L Kulkarni Journal: J Grad Med Educ Date: 2021-12-14
Authors: Robert James Adrian; April Choi; Sangeeta Lamba; Ilya Ostrovsky; Christine Ramdin; Christin Traba; Sophia Chen; Alexander Sudyn; Stephen Alerhand Journal: MedEdPORTAL Date: 2022-02-02