Scheduling in the context of resident duty hour reform

Well-Being Intervention in General Surgery: Multicenter Study of Program Director and Resident Perspectives

BACKGROUND

Physician well-being is critical for optimal care, but rates of psychological distress among surgical trainees are rising. Although numerous efforts have been made, the perceived efficacy of well-being interventions is not well understood.

STUDY DESIGN

This qualitative thematic study included online questionnaires to Program Directors (PDs) and residents at 16 ACGME-accredited General Surgery residency programs. PDs reported active well-being interventions for surgical residents or those under consideration at their institutions. Residents shared perspectives of available well-being interventions through open-ended responses. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze responses.

RESULTS

Fifteen PDs, or their proxies (94% response rate), responded. Responses revealed that a majority of available well-being interventions are focused on changing the individual experience rather than the underlying workplace. PD decision-making around well-being interventions is often not based on objective data. Three hundred residents (34% response rate) responded. Of available interventions, those that increase control (eg advanced and flexible scheduling), increase support (eg mentorship), and decrease demand (eg work hour limits) were consistently identified as beneficial, but interventions perceived to increase demand (eg held during unprotected time) were consistently identified as not beneficial. Group social activities, cognitive skills training, and well-being committees were variably seen as beneficial (increasing support) or not (increasing demand).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings underscore the prevalence of individual-based well-being interventions and the paucity of system-level changes. This may explain, in part, the persistence of distress among residents despite abundant effort, highlighting the imperative for system-level transformation.

Doctors' Extended Shifts as Risk to Practitioner and Patient: South Africa as a Case Study

Extended shifts are common in medical practice. This is when doctors are required to work continuously for more than 16 h, with little or no rest, often without a maximum limit. These shifts have been a part of medical practice for more than a century. Research on the impact of fatigue presents compelling evidence that extended shifts increase the risk of harm to patients and practitioners. However, where the number of doctors is limited and their workloads are not easily reduced, there are numerous barriers to reform. Some of these include a perceived lack of safer alternatives, concerns about continuity of care, trainee education, and doctors’ preferences. As such, working hour reorganisation has been contentious globally. South Africa, a middle-income country where extended shifts are unregulated for most doctors, offers a useful case study of reform efforts. The South African Safe Working Hours campaign has promoted working hour reorganization through multi-level advocacy efforts, although extended shifts remain common. We propose that extended shifts should be regarded as an occupational hazard under health and safety legislation. We suggest options for managing the risks of extended shifts by adapting the hierarchy of controls for occupational hazards. Despite the challenges reform pose, the practice of unregulated extended shifts should not continue.

Exploring the evolving concept of 'patient ownership' in the era of resident duty hour regulations-experience of residents and faculty in an internal medicine night float system

BACKGROUND

Despite the use of 'patient ownership' as an embodiment of professionalism and increasing concerns over its loss among trainees, how its development in residents has been affected by duty hour regulations has not been well described. In this qualitative study, we aim to outline the key features of patient ownership in internal medicine, factors enabling its development, and how these have been affected by the adoption of a night float system to comply with duty hour regulations.

METHODS

In this qualitative descriptive study, we interviewed 18 residents and 12 faculty internists at one university centre and conducted a thematic analysis of the data focused on the concept of patient ownership.

RESULTS

We identified three key features of patient ownership: personal concern for patients, professional capacity for autonomous decision-making, and knowledge of patients' issues. Within the context of a night float system, factors that facilitate development of patient ownership include improved fitness for duty and more consistent interactions with patients/families resulting from working the same shift over consecutive days (or nights). Conversely, the increase in patient handovers, if done poorly, is a potential threat to patient ownership development. Trainees often struggle to develop ownership when autonomy is not supported with supervision and when role-modelling by faculty is lacking.

DISCUSSION

These features of patient ownership can be used to frame discussions when coaching trainees. Residency programs should be mindful of the downstream effects of shift-based scheduling. We propose strategies to optimize factors that enable trainee development of patient ownership.

Adjusting to duty hour reforms: residents' perception of the safety climate in interdisciplinary night-float rotations

BACKGROUND

New scheduling models were needed to adjust to residents' duty hour reforms while maintaining safe patient care. In interdisciplinary night-float rotations, four to six residents from most residency programs collaborated for after-hours cross-coverage of most adult hospitalised patients as part of a Faculty-led rotation. Residents worked sixteen 12-hour night shifts over a month.

METHODS

We measured residents' perception of the patient safety climate during implementation of night-float rotations in five tertiary hospitals. We surveyed 267 residents who had completed the rotation in 2015-2016 with an online version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire. First year residents came from most residency programs, second- and third-year residents came from internal medicine.

RESULTS

One-hundred-and-thirty residents completed the questionnaire. Scores did not differ across hospitals and residents' years of training for all six safety-related climate factors: teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, safety climate, working conditions, and stress recognition.

CONCLUSION

Simultaneous implementation in five hospitals of a Faculty-led interdisciplinary night-float rotation for most junior residents proved to be logistically feasible and showed similar and reassuring patient safety climate scores.

Use of a Night Float System to Comply With Resident Duty Hours Restrictions: Perceptions of Workplace Changes and Their Effects on Professionalism

PURPOSE

Although some evidence suggests that resident duty hours reforms can lead to shift-worker mentality and loss of patient ownership, other evidence links long hours and fatigue to poor work performance and loss of empathy, suggesting the restrictions could positively affect professionalism. The authors explored perceived impacts of a 16-hour duty restriction, achieved using a night float (NF) system, on the workplace and professionalism.

METHOD

In 2013, the authors conducted semistructured interviews with 18 residents, 9 staff physicians, and 3 residency program directors in the McGill University core internal medicine residency program regarding their perceptions of the program's 12-hour shift-based NF system. Interviews were transcribed and coded for common themes. The authors used a descriptive qualitative methodology.

RESULTS

Participants viewed implementation of the NF system as leading to decreased physical and mental exhaustion, more consistent interaction with patients, and more stable team structure within shifts compared with the previous 24-hour call system. These workplace changes were felt to improve teamwork and patient ownership within shifts, quality of work performed, and empathy. Across shifts, however, more frequent sign-overs, stricter application of shift time boundaries, and loose integration between daytime and NF teams were perceived as leading to emergence of shift-worker mentality around sign-over. Perceptions of optimal patient ownership changed from the traditional single-physician-24/7 model to team-based shared ownership.

CONCLUSIONS

Duty hours restrictions, as exemplified by an NF system, have both positive and negative impacts on professionalism. Interventions and training toward effective team-based care are needed to curb emergence of shift-worker mentality.