Resident productivity: does shift length matter?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine
• Healthcare Operations

Background:

• Resident productivity generally increases with training experience.
• The impact of shift length on resident productivity remains understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if shift length influences the patient evaluation rate of second-year residents.
• To compare the productivity of residents working 9-hour versus 12-hour shifts.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of emergency department (ED) patient encounters.
• Inclusion of data from second-year residents working 9-hour and 12-hour shifts.
• Statistical analysis using a 2-tailed t-test to compare patient evaluation rates.

Main Results:

• Residents working 9-hour shifts evaluated 1.15 patients per hour, versus 1.06 patients per hour for those on 12-hour shifts.
• Shorter shifts resulted in an estimated 10 additional patients seen per day in a 120-hour coverage ED.
• This translates to approximately 180 additional patient encounters per resident annually.

Conclusions:

• Shorter resident shifts (9 hours) are associated with higher patient evaluation rates per hour.
• Optimizing shift length may enhance resident productivity and increase overall patient encounters in the ED.