How Does an ER Doctor Spend a Workday?

No Such Thing as a Typical Day

Many emergency room doctors would say there's never an average workday at an ER. Workdays will depend on the specialty of the emergency room physician, how busy the emergency room is and the time of day. Since most emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ER doctors must work night shifts as well as day shifts. The typical shift length for an ER doctor is about 10 to 12 hours, although a resident ER doctor can sometimes work 24 hours straight. These 24-hour shifts feature much of the same type of care as the day and night shifts, except that the care is continuously given by the same doctor. It used to be that after working 24 hours straight, the ER doctor would then go straight into his next regular 12-hour shift. However, regulations in 2003 put a cap on doctors working more than a 30-hour shift. Recommendations from the Institute of Medicine suggest limiting shifts to no more than 16 hours.

Day Shift

The doctor will arrive in the morning to take over from those working the night shift. During the handover, the doctor will get caught up, find out if there have been any changes in the condition of her patients, or if there are any acute patient needs she needs to be aware of. Then the doctor has to get ready for hospital rounds. Once rounds are completed, the doctor will spend the rest of the morning covering the ward and taking care of patients. After lunch, the doctor may spend the rest of the day managing her patients, getting lab results, discharging patients, taking medical histories, reading X-rays and many other tasks that may be required during the day.

Nigh Shift

A doctor can be assigned a night shift or can exclusively work night shifts. The night shift doctor will come in around 10 p.m. and won't leave until around 8 the following morning. Like the morning shift, there will be a handover with sign-out rounds, which entail the doctor going to every patient in the ER and learning those situations so that the night shift doctor is able to continue caring for the patient as though he had been caring for the patient all along. Most night shift doctors are generally kept busy, and rarely have time to even have a meal during the shift. The doctor will see a variety of patients throughout the night, ranging from intoxicated patients to head trauma cases to patients with a fever or rashes.