On-Call

[drock411]

Just wondering what "On-call" is like.

 

I ask because one of my favorite activities is sitting back and having a few beers while watching some hockey/football/soccer/sports in general. I am guessing that a doctor that is on-call all the time can't really ever do this?

This may sound weird but that alone would probably be enough to send me to a specialty without much call.

[Valentine]

Call sucks. It's inhumane and I don't understand why doctors haven't had the same regulations as airline pilots for being awake for too long. I mean, some places brag about 28 hours max while on call like its a good thing. Gimme a break - so that means for 4 of those hours you're as clear-headed as a drunk-driver? Patient safety is #1....heh riiiight.

 

 

Unfortunately, basically everything except path, derm, and radonc have some sort of ungodly call. ER can be exempt as well, but the hours are all over the place.

 

Your idea of relaxing is possible on all nights that aren't call nights. Most call schedules I hear are 1 in 4, which means every four days. So you'll still be able to relax, just not while on call.

[Lactic Folly]

Varies, depending on what you're doing, where, and what comes up that particular night.. it might be busy straight through the night, in which you'll be lucky to see your call room at all before morning rounds. It might be slow at first (so you'll see people watching sports in the lounge until they get paged), then busy until the wee hours, when you manage to catch a few hours of sleep in your call room. Or slow all evening, so you can study, eat, go to bed.. then 1 hr later you get paged and are busy until morning. We had home call for psych, which meant you would only have to come in if there was a patient to be admitted that night.

[Satsuma]

Do you tend to think you'll need to be sitting back having a beer and watching a game every day?

 

No matter what specialization you'd pick you'd be able to have a beer now and then.

 

As already mentionned....call in unpredictable. You may get several hours of sleep, a couple or none. It is surprisingly not as bad as it seems. At least at first. With an accumulated sleep deficit it can start to get hard. But as a student it is a good time to learn.

 

With the 1 in 4 call....it just has to average 1 in 4. So there are some weeks where you will be having call more frequently than that...but then it would have to average out with a lighter week. These are what the regulations are for residents. There are some rotations that are a little lighter or you can do home call.

 

As staff, that is another thing. There are not really any rules as to min/max call.