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

• Main Authors: Benjamin Yong-Qiang Tan, Nicholas Jinghao Ngiam, Zi Yun Chang, Sandra Ming Yien Tan, Xiayan Shen, Shao Feng Mok, Srinivas Subramanian, Shirley Beng Suat Ooi, Adrian Chin-Leong Kee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Medical Education 2019-09-01
• Series: Korean Journal of Medical Education
• Subjects: After-hours care; Patient safety; Medical education
• Online Access: http://kjme.kr/upload/pdf/kjme-2019-137.pdf
• ISSN: 2005-727X; 2005-7288

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”.