Residents in psychiatry at UCI Medical Center benefit from the support of fellow residents and attending staff during assigned overnight call. In 2004, we adopted a short- and long-call system at UCI consisting of short calls from 5 pm to 10 pm on weekdays and long calls from 5 pm to 8 am weekdays or from 8 am to 8 am (24 hrs) on weekends.
In 2006 we adopted a short call team and night float system which has further
increased the quality of life of our residents. Throughout your residency
you will have the opportunity to work on a small team with almost every other
resident. This provides a unique opportunity to work one-on-one with
senior residents, exposes you to different ideas and styles while getting to
know upperclassmen better.
The residents and staff welcomed this call system not only because it complies with ACGME requirements (no work week approaching the limit of 80 hours, and 10-hour breaks between short call and the 8:00 AM start the next morning), but it also provides interns with the support of 2nd and 3rd year residents when they need it most and allows for a significant tapering of call duties from year to year. Post-call residents are instructed to complete duties carried over, initiate no new duties, and head home from the hospital by noon.
Residents work the above-mentioned calls when assigned to inpatient psychiatry, outpatient medicine, and neurology services. During the month or two of inpatient medicine or pediatrics, residents follow the call schedule of their assigned teams, and this is currently coverage every fourth night (until 11:00 PM for medicine/no overnight call). Similarly, when assigned to emergency medicine, residents follow the emergency medicine schedule of 12-hour shifts.
