Residency Night Call

There is NO Night ON CALL. We instead use a NIGHT FLOAT (shift) method. Residents are responsible for planned admissions to the inpatient unit if they arrive after regular business hours. In addition, they provide psychiatric evaluation and consultation for patients presenting to the emergency room and consults in the hospital. An after-hours room is provided. Night Float begins at 7:30PM and provides overnight coverage of emergency services. The Night Float resident attends morning check out the following morning for transfer of care to the day team. There is an emergency backup system in place for emergency situations with the Night Float Resident.

Call is supervised by faculty who are available to discuss all cases, provide teaching and assist the resident with decision making. All cases are discussed with faculty by phone with on-site supervision available when needed. We consider call to be an important learning experience for residents. In addition to the supervision provided by the attending on call, a senior resident and attending review emergency room cases with residents the morning following their call night. This gives residents an opportunity to review their clinical work as well as to learn about systems issues, ethical dilemmas and legal concerns that often arise when on call or providing consultation services.

During the first months of the academic year the more senior residents serve as “buddies” and work beside the PGY-1 residents in order to smooth out their transition into residency.

PGY-1s take short call lasting 14 hours during their inpatient months. This means that the PGY-1 resident on short call provides coverage for the inpatient unit for planned admissions or patient emergencies and/or joins the rest of the team for consults in the Emergency Department or in the hospital.

Weekend coverage of the inpatient services is shared among residents.