Study objective: To assess current emergency medicine faculty scheduling practices, preferences, and recent changes.
Design: Mail survey.
Participants: All emergency medicine residency program directors and full-time faculty.
Interventions: Questions were asked about current faculty scheduling practices, preferences, and recent changes.
Results: Eighty-five percent (79 of 93) of the programs and 63% (606 of 961) of the full-time faculty responded. Faculty most commonly worked a combination of 8- and 12-hour shifts. Seventy-five percent of full-time faculty stated that they would prefer to work 8-hour shifts. Eighty-three percent of those who work some or all 8-hour shifts preferred 8-hour shifts; 21% of those working 12-hour shifts preferred the same (P < .0005; test of proportions difference, 62%; 95% confidence interval, 55% to 69%). Over the past 5 years, 40% of programs had shortened shift lengths, and the number of night shifts worked per month and/or the number of nights in a row worked per faculty decreased for 34%.
Conclusion: Residency faculty prefer and have moved toward working shorter shifts. They are also working fewer night shifts per month and fewer night shifts in a row.