Resident service hours in emergency medicine. SAEM Education Committee.

OBJECTIVE

The number of hours worked by residents in all specialties has become a controversial issue. Residents often are expected to competently conduct patient care activities and to take educational advantage of clinical experiences in spite of frequent fatigue and sleep deprivation. This survey of residency directors was designed to assess the scheduled clinical time for emergency medicine (EM) residents.

METHODS

A 13-question survey dealing with time commitments of EM residents was sent to the residency directors of all accredited EM residency programs in the United States in the fall of 1991. Residency directors were asked to indicate the number of shifts, hours, and days off per week; and the number of night shifts and weekend days off per month for each postgraduate year of residency training (PGY1-PGY4). Directors also were asked whether shifts were scheduled randomly or predictably with progression from days to nights with time off after nights.

RESULTS

Seventy of 71 (98.6% response rate) residency directors responded. Residents were scheduled for an average of 49.1 hours per week. Scheduled hours decreased from an average of 51.9 at the PGY1 level to an average of 44.5 at the PGY4 level. A similar progression with year of training was noted for scheduled night shifts/month, days off/week, and weekend days off/month. A PGY1 trainee averaged 7.0 night shifts/month, 1.9 days off/week, and 3.0 weekend days off/month; while a PGY4 trainee averaged 5.3, 2.4, and 3.2, respectively. Only 40% of the directors reported predictable scheduling progressing from days to nights.

CONCLUSION

Emergency medicine resident schedules, as reported by residency directors, fall well within current specialty-specific requirements and compare favorably with the reported numbers for other specialties. However, because large ranges in scheduling parameters were reported, the data may be of value to residency directors, residents, and prospective residents. Most programs did not report a predictable schedule progression of shifts.