How is the Department of Veterans Affairs addressing the new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education intern work hour limitations? Solutions from the Association of Veterans Affairs Surgeons

Strategies for improving education on night-float rotations: a review

INTRODUCTION

Night float rotations (NF) have been developed as a means of achieving duty hour compliance among residency programs. These were initially pioneered in the late 1980s as a response to fatigue among residents. The NF experience had its genesis in work hour reform and providing hospital service moreso than education. However, as NF has become ubiquitous, it is not clear that we have adequately revisited the educational component of this experience. We systematically reviewed the literature on educational aspects of a night float experience.

METHODS

PubMed searches were conducted for the terms "night float" and "night, curriculum, residency." This yielded 320 articles. Concerning educational aspects of the NF reduced the total to 134 articles. Editorials and those concerning procedural volumes or handoffs were also excluded. Most articles used surveys as methodology, so formal statistical analysis was not possible.

RESULTS

In total, 42 independent articles were found that directly related to the educational value of NF rotations, spanning all of the medical disciplines. Each study was searched for interventions or strategies that may affect the educational value of the NF experience. These may be grouped broadly into 3 discrete categories: (1) attention to the sleep-wake cycle, (2) addition of personal to augment the experience and (3) incorporation of formal educational elements to night rotations. A summary of these strategies is presented in Table 3.

CONCLUSIONS

NF is a practical solution to the challenge of work hour restrictions in residency, and is likely to persist in the future. Some educational issues arise due to the altered physiology of a reversed sleep-wake cycle, which may be best resolved through structural limitations of the night rotations. Other deficiencies are based on lack of interactions, for which there are strategies to improving the NF educational experience.

Changes to pediatric clerkships' nighttime structure after introduction of the 2011 ACGME resident duty hour standards

OBJECTIVE

To report changes in pediatric clerkship nighttime clinical structures before and after implementation of the 2011 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) resident duty hour standards.

METHODS

As part of the 2011 Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) member annual survey, we surveyed leaders of pediatric undergraduate medical education on their medical school's current nighttime clinical structure, changes in nighttime structure between 2010 and 2011, and their school's student duty hour standards.

RESULTS

Fifty-six percent (n = 83) of Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME)-accredited medical schools responded to the survey. Of received responses, 98% of pediatric clerkships have some form of nighttime clinical experience; 49% of clerkships have medical students stay late, 24% of clerkships utilize night shifts, and 16% use a traditional call structure. Forty-five percent of clerkships report changing their nighttime clinical experience after implementation of the 2011 ACGME duty hour standards; 46% of clerkships that changed had previously used traditional call. Seventy-six percent of clerkships report having medical student duty hour standards at their medical school.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of pediatric clerkships in our survey include nighttime clinical experiences in their curriculum, although variability exists in the type of structure. Additionally, the new ACGME duty hour standards appear to affect clerkships directors' choice of structure.