Abstract
Purpose :
To compare resident sleep patterns while on night float compared to traditional home call.
Methods :
This was a crossover observational study assessing sleep patterns of 7 postgraduate year 2 ophthalmology residents at the University of Washington from 2019 to 2021 using wrist actigraphy. Overnight call is scheduled for 5 pm-8 am on weekdays, and 8 am-8 am on weekends. The residency program implemented a partial night float rotation, during which 2-3 nights of consecutive call were assigned to a resident without other clinical duties. The remaining nights of call were assigned to residents as home call with post-call relief, such that residents returned to regularly scheduled clinic after a call shift but were relieved of clinical duties at noon following overnight call.
Sleep was recorded using the Fitbit Alta HR for residents while on a partial night float rotation, on home call rotations with post-call relief, and on rotations without any call responsibilities. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare average sleep on home call, night-float, and periods of 7 or more days without call.
Results :
Data obtained from residents ranged from 26 to 329 days. Of 7 participating residents, 5 recorded sleep during night float and 6 recorded sleep on at least a 7 day stretch without call. Average sleep was higher in residents on stretches of 7 or more days without call compared to residents on rotations with any call (N=6, p=0.031) (Figure 1a). There was no significant difference between average sleep during the night float rotations versus home call rotations (N=5, p>0.99) (Figure 1b). Although 4 out of 5 residents recorded more average sleep while on call (recorded for 24 hours on call, 5 pm-5 pm) during night float compared to home call, this difference was not statistically significant (N=5, p=0.187) (Figure 2).
Conclusions :
Overall, residents sleep more when not assigned to any call, but there are no significant differences between overall amount of sleep between rotations with traditional home call with post-call relief and night float.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.