Medical Student Perceptions of On-Call Modalities: A Focus Group Study

Phenomenon: The call component of clerkship presents students with unique opportunities and challenges. Clerkship programs employ various call modalities, including traditional call, night float, and evening call. The impact of these call models on the student experience has not been explored in depth. Approach: Focus groups were conducted with 4th-year medical students, exploring their multidimensional experiences with various call modalities during clerkship. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings: Thirty-nine students participated in 6 focus groups. Four overarching themes were identified: (a) educational value conferred by clinical exposure and teaching, (b) maintaining quality of life and developing features of burnout, (c) formation of professional identity via relationships with team members, and (d) perceived quality of patient care provided. Students associated evening call with burnout and poor educational value but also better patient continuity of care. Night float and traditional call contributed to a sense of team bonding and had enhanced perceived educational value while on call but resulted in loss of formal academic teaching time. Insights: Call modality impacts student learning, well-being, professional identity formation, and patient care; however, trade-off among these elements exists across all call models. Enhancing the value of student call experience may be achieved by implementation of various purposeful changes. These may include creating consistency between student and resident call schedules, maximizing recovery time between call shifts, and avoiding scheduling of students for call prior to academic sessions.