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TheRomanRuler t1_j20mkgd wrote

Reply to comment by Cyclops_is_Right in How do shifts work on really long medical operations? by TerjiD

But why can't you do them in such a way that you got 2 surgeons working at the same time, each with 8 hour shifts but which start 4 hours apart. So you got 4 hours working at the same time, but after 4 hours one of them is changed. After another for hours one who has not yet changed is changed. Every time one who has been working longer is the primary surgeon at the moment, other assists.

That way you got 4 hours of time to get in touch with current state of the operation.

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Kael_Doreibo t1_j216kom wrote

Your biggest problem with this, particularly in the emergency departments, is the sudden onset of emergencies, their scale, and the time needed for certain surgeries/procedures. There are times when you, as a medical practitioner, need to be on for the entire period that it takes to resolve the onset of cases before you because any switch-over will result in loss of information and potentially death. With so many emergencies happening all the time in a larger population/operational radius of the hospital it become untenable to keep to that kind of schedule consistently and any inconsistencies results in a cascade effect across rosters/schedules.

It's good to at least attempt to keep to that kind of schedule and it makes sense to try it at least but ultimately it is impossible to just say "this is the solution" for every scenario.

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ninecat t1_j21qd73 wrote

There is already an international shortage in all of the medical professions. Emergencies don’t work to rosters and medical culture trains doctors and especially surgeons that they are super human and can carry on robotically despite fatigue.

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