Perceptions of a night float system for intern doctors in an internal medicine program: an Asian perspective

Korean Journal of Medical Education

Shirley Beng Suat Ooi¹  Nicholas Jinghao Ngiam²  Sandra Ming Yien Tan²  Benjamin Yong-Qiang Tan²  Xiayan Shen²  Shao Feng Mok²  Zi Yun Chang²  Adrian Chin-Leong Kee²  Srinivas Subramanian² 

[1] Department of Emergency Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore;Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore;

关键词: After-hours care;    Patient safety;    Medical education;   

DOI  :  10.3946/kjme.2019.137

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Long duty hours have been associated with significant medical errors, adverse events, and physician “burn-out”. An innovative night float (NF) system has been implemented in our internal medicine program to reduce the negative effects of long duty hours associated with conventional full-call systems. However, concerns remain if this would result in inadequate training for interns. We developed a structured questionnaire to assess junior doctors’ perceptions of the NF system compared to full calls, in areas of patient safety, medical training, and well-being. Ninety-seven (71%) of the 137 doctors polled responded. Ninety-one (94%) felt the NF system was superior to the full call system. A strong majority felt NF was beneficial for patient safety compared to full call (94% vs. 2%, p<0.001). The NF system was also perceived to reduce medical errors (94% vs. 2%, p<0.001) and reduce physician “burn-out” (95% vs. 5%, p<0.001). Beyond being a practical solution to duty-hour limitations, there was a significant perceived benefit of the NF system compared to the full call in terms of overall satisfaction, patient safety, reducing medical errors and physician “burn-out”.

【 授权许可】

Unknown