Healthcare managers love rotating schedules! After all, rotating shifts provide a number of benefits for hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Rotating shifts are less popular among physicians and other providers, though.
What are Rotating Shifts?
As their name suggests, rotating shifts are work schedules in which practitioners regularly take turns covering day, evening, and night shifts.
Types of rotating shifts
Rotating shifts are not a one-size-fits-all solution to scheduling – in fact, there are several types of rotating shifts to suit nearly every need. The DuPont and Pitman are two popular rotating shift schedules.
DuPont Shift Schedule
This schedule uses four teams working 12-hour shifts. Using the DuPont system, a doctor might have the following schedule for four weeks:
• Work 4 consecutive night shifts, then take 3 consecutive days off
• Work 3 consecutive day shifts, then take 1 day off
• Work 3 consecutive night shifts, then take 3 consecutive days off
• Work 4 consecutive night shifts, then take 7 consecutive days off
Pitman Shift Schedule
The Pitman Shift Schedule allows doctors to take every other weekend off. It also uses teams working 12-hour shifts. Teams typically work a “2-3-2” pattern in which they have:
• 2 consecutive workdays, 2 days off
• 3 consecutive workdays, 2 days off
• 2 consecutive workdays, 3 days off
The Pitman Shift Schedule may be fixed or rotating. On a fixed Pitman Shift Schedule, teams always work either day or night shifts. In a rotating version, the teams alternate between day and night shifts.
Benefits of Rotating Shifts
Healthcare organizations enjoy a number of benefits through the use of rotating shifts. These benefits include:
Continuous care
Hospital patients require 24/7 care. Rotating shifts ensure round-the-clock care and help ensure that there are enough qualified providers to fill every shift.
Improved work-life balance
Being able to spend time relaxing with family is important to all workers, including emergency physicians and other doctors. Being stuck on a perpetual night shift can increase cardiovascular risk, glucose intolerance, lowered immunity, and other health issues – it can also lead to physician burnout, which contributes to high turnover rates and reduced quality of care for patients.Rotating schedules can improve work-life balance by giving doctors the opportunity to work more day shifts.
Creation of learning opportunities
The day shift is remarkably different from the night shift. During the day, doctors are busy performing procedures, speaking with patients, and ordering/interpreting tests; the day shift also provides opportunities to consult with other physicians. At night, doctors learn to operate independently, and this autonomy can help build confidence.
Rotating schedules help physicians learn from others during the day and apply that knowledge while working alone at night.
Optimize Your Healthcare Organization’s Success with ByteBloc’s Physician Scheduling Software
Some types of scheduling software do a better job than others when it comes to managing rotating shift schedules, so it’s important to choose the right shift scheduling software. Many organizations turn to ByteBloc – we have provided exceptional emergency medicine scheduling and other types of physician scheduling for years.
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