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Quote: BigJerIt's actually this Sunday 2AM.
Yes, tonight (Saturday) at 2am.
Quote: AZDuffmanNo, we moved back a day in February so we are all in order.
We gained a day in Feb, the 29th. In some states..
The UK has been back for about 2 weeks. Just to confuse things.
Radar: "Because the earth is a large sphere, constantly rotating"
Henry: "Oh, I thought is was just some army thing"
Quote: SOOPOOI have to work my unpleasant 16 hour shift tonight, from 3pm to 7am. Imagine my joy when I found out it is a 17 hour shift..... And, we get paid the same every two weeks regardless..... no OT....
You're joking right? That's got to be against some labor law and reasonably so.
Quote: ahiromuYou're joking right? That's got to be against some labor law and reasonably so.
No joke. Until last year we worked 24 hours. We recently split the day into an 8 and a 16, but that just means you work twice as many weekends, even though of course the hours are the same. The resident physicians still work 24 consecutive hours (they get meal breaks and coffee breaks), and they are fully off for 24 hours after such a shift. The resident hours are limited to a maximum of 80 in a week, and they are guaranteed a ten hour break after a long, non overnight shift. The attending physicians have no such guarantees. But we hire enough to have our regular work week average around 55 hours. If you have no weekend during that week we probably do around 45, if you have the 'bad' week like I do today, I'll probably do 60 or so. The nurses are limited to 16 consecutive hours by NY State rules.
Quote: SOOPOOI have to work my unpleasant 16 hour shift tonight, from 3pm to 7am. Imagine my joy when I found out it is a 17 hour shift..... And, we get paid the same every two weeks regardless..... no OT....
Ouch. I was smart this year and reminded the scheduler that we work an extra hour tonight. Last year sucked. Spring forward is worse because there is less time to get everything ready for the morning shift.
Quote: avargovMost ridiculous thing society has ever come up with...
This is how the government reminds us that they control everything, even time itself....
Quote: SOOPOONo joke. Until last year we worked 24 hours. We recently split the day into an 8 and a 16, but that just means you work twice as many weekends, even though of course the hours are the same. The resident physicians still work 24 consecutive hours (they get meal breaks and coffee breaks), and they are fully off for 24 hours after such a shift. The resident hours are limited to a maximum of 80 in a week, and they are guaranteed a ten hour break after a long, non overnight shift. The attending physicians have no such guarantees. But we hire enough to have our regular work week average around 55 hours. If you have no weekend during that week we probably do around 45, if you have the 'bad' week like I do today, I'll probably do 60 or so. The nurses are limited to 16 consecutive hours by NY State rules.
Why are these crazy schedules so common in medicine? I am shocked that these young doctors don't make lots of errors in the 20-24th hours of their shifts. Why don't you guys just work normal 8 or 12 hour shifts like everyone else?
Quote: bigfoot66Why are these crazy schedules so common in medicine? I am shocked that these young doctors don't make lots of errors in the 20-24th hours of their shifts. Why don't you guys just work normal 8 or 12 hour shifts like everyone else?
For interns they say it is to break the weak ones early. For doctors I would imagine part due to shortage of available docs and part that er medicine starts the day slow and fills up by evening. Can't have people just walking out. Just my guess.
Quote: SOOPOOI have to work my unpleasant 16 hour shift tonight, from 3pm to 7am. Imagine my joy when I found out it is a 17 hour shift..... And, we get paid the same every two weeks regardless..... no OT....
But in the spring, you make up for it with a 15 hour shift... ;)
Quote: bigfoot66Why are these crazy schedules so common in medicine? I am shocked that these young doctors don't make lots of errors in the 20-24th hours of their shifts. Why don't you guys just work normal 8 or 12 hour shifts like everyone else?
I can answer for my group---- there are 11 of us who share a 24/7 in house responsibility. If you include Friday night, we split the Friday 3pm - Monday 7am work amongst 3 docs. There is always a backup at home, too. There are 8, 8 hour shifts to fill, and most scenarios of doing only 8 at a time requires 4 to mess up a weekend. It works well for us. Sometimes we get lucky, too. I am presently 'working', but there are no cases going on, so I can be typing here! And if I'm lucky, sleeping at night. We do have a case 'scheduled' for 6am, so I wont make it to 7am unscathed...
The initial reason given for the long schedules was that they wanted the young docs to see a patient from diagnosis to treatment, without having to transfer the patient to the next newcomer. I believe that was never really the case, just the residents were cheap labor. I think the present rules provide a fair compromise between the educational needs of the residents, their sleep needs, and the patients needs. Our residents in my department are required to keep a log of their exact work hours... they average 60 -65 hours per week.