Transitional Year Residency Program Curriculum: Call Structure

We’ve replaced traditional overnight call with night float and scheduled admitting shifts. The night float rotation covers nighttime admissions to the resident services Sunday-Friday nights. Scheduled resident admitting shifts cover admissions to the resident services between 12pm – 7pm, until the night float team arrives. All work shifts for interns or residents are always 12 hours or less. Interns do not take 24-hour call. Interns and residents are only scheduled for weekend admitting shifts if they are on  a primary service such as general medicine, cardiology teaching service or in a critical care unit.

PGY-1 Admitting/Call Responsibilities

A night float system is in place from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. that allows a team of interns and residents to cover the admissions and floor calls during the evening hours. During the night, there are 3 night float teams in place to cover the medical/cardiac ICU resident service, general medicine resident services and resident cardiology teaching service. The team will typically consist of two interns and one senior resident. For the remainder of the year the team is one intern and one senior resident. Interns receive two-to-four weeks of night float scheduled throughout the year.

When on general medicine or cardiology, interns will accept new admissions two afternoons per week. When on this admitting team, interns stay in-house until they sign out to the night float team at 7 p.m. Non-admitting afternoons are for follow-up of patients on the service.

When on general medicine of the cardiology teaching service, each intern will be assigned one of the following weekend shifts each week. These include:

• Half-day patient rounding shift
• One day patient rounding and admitting shift
• One Saturday overnight admitting shift

When on general medicine interns will receive one or one-and-a-half days off each weekend.

If scheduled in a critical care unit interns are expected to work six days a week, without night shifts. Interns receive either one or one-half day off per week.

During electives, interns may have one to two Saturday night admitting shifts throughout the year to help cover if needed. Otherwise, interns usually don't have call during their electives or selectives.

Interns always admit patients under the direct supervision of a resident and attending physician.