In today’s ED scheduling world, there are three are several shift time-frames to work in the ED. Typically, 8-12 hour shifts are the normal pending on the ED size. In smaller emergency departments, it is not uncommon to see 24 hour – 72 hour shifts. The longer shifts are usually in low volume rural areas and critical access sites. For this discussion, the most common shift to work for most is the 12 hour shift. For example, a common time-frame is 7am-7pm (day shift) and 7pm-7am (night shift). Each shift has its pros and cons.

The day shift in of itself is just that. Each work day is an early morning wake-up time as with other jobs. Traditionally, one would see quite a few more outpatient cases during the day shift compared to night shift. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case nowadays. There are patterns during the year where the emergency departments tend to be busier in the early evening. A provider typically starts out slower in the morning and will finish with a busier load the latter half of the shift as people get out of school and work. The downside to this is that sometimes it takes longer to finish charting and a provider doesn’t always leave work on time. The day shift many times will see the most patients.

For night shift, it usually starts out busier and ends with an empty or near empty ED especially at the smaller rural sites. This is nice in that it is easier to finish charting and paperwork along with getting downtime (no patients in the ED). This will allow the provider to sleep or rest for a while if there is a call room. Unfortunately, sleeping during the day and working nights for some providers would get old after awhile. This is especially true if the provider has a family. Sometimes, the hospital or group offers a night differential of $10-$15/hr to make up for this inconvenience.

Lastly, some facilities with 12 hour shifts allow you to work 24’s. This is especially true at lower volume sites were there are a max of 20-30 patients at day on average. These shifts are nice when they pay well and have a call room. It isn’t unusual to have nights on these shifts where you may only a few patients and sometimes none. You essentially get paid t sleep and sometimes need very little rest if any on your day off. 7 shifts a month at these facilities is considered full time. Thus, you can see the pros and cons of these shifts.

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