Pediatric resident’s perception of night float system compared to 24 hours system, a prospective study

BACKGROUND: The study aims to evaluate the perceptions of pediatric residents under the night float (NF) on-call system and its impact on well-being, education, and patient safety compared with the traditional 24-h on-call system.

METHODS: The study is prospective in nature and conducted on two pediatric resident training centers who apply the NF on-call system as a pilot project.

Senior residents (PGY-3 and PGY-4) enrolled in the two training centers were invited to participate before and 6 months after the implementation of the change in the on-call system.

A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed.

Responses were rated using a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree).

The items covered three main domains, namely, residents’ well-being, ability to deliver healthcare, and medical education experience.

Pre- and post-intervention scores were presented as means and compared by t-test for paired samples.

RESULTS: A total of 42 residents participated in the survey (female = 24; 57.1%).

All participants were senior residents; 25 (59.6%) were third-year residents (PGY-3), whereas 17 (40.4%) were fourth-year residents (PGY-4).

The participants reported that many aspects of the three domains were improved with the introduction of the NF system.

The system was perceived to exert less adverse health effect on the residents (mean: 2.37 ± 1.01) compared with the 24-h on-call system (mean: 4.19 ± 0.60; P < 0.001).

In addition, the NF system was perceived to lead to less exposure to personal harm and result in less negative impact on quality of care, better work efficiency, reduced potential for medical errors, more successful teaching, and less disruptions to other rotations compared with the 24 h on-call system (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: The perception of senior residents toward the 24-h on-call system pertains to negative impacts on well-being, education, and patient safety compared with on-call systems with restrictive duty hours, such as the NF system, which is perceived to be less harmful, to exert positive impacts on the quality of delivered healthcare services, and more useful from pedagogic aspect.