St. Vincent's University Hospital

The rota

For both medical and surgical rotations the on-call pattern is broadly the same: on average 4 weekday call shifts, 3 weekend call days, and 7 nights per rotation, split into one 4-night block and one 3-night block.

You get the same number of days off after nights as nights worked.

Weekend call, especially Sundays and bank holiday Mondays, is extremely busy, since you are often picking up jobs left undone during the week while also managing unwell patients who have not been seen in two days.

Workload & stress

There are 4 interns on call, down from 5 the year before, and how busy you are depends almost entirely on which zone you are covering, with the surgical wards usually much busier.

Weekend call, especially Sundays and bank holiday Mondays, is extremely busy, since you are often picking up jobs left undone during the week while also managing unwell patients who have not been seen in two days.

Nights are often busy, but with experience you can sometimes get a three to four hour break between calls by anticipating problems early.

Support on call

There are 4 interns on call, down from 5 the year before, and how busy you are depends almost entirely on which zone you are covering, with the surgical wards usually much busier.

Support is generally good.

The critical care ANP team are very helpful with deteriorating patients, though they only work until 8 pm, and the medical registrar on call often makes or breaks the shift.

Sleep & breaks

The critical care ANP team are very helpful with deteriorating patients, though they only work until 8 pm, and the medical registrar on call often makes or breaks the shift.

Nights are often busy, but with experience you can sometimes get a three to four hour break between calls by anticipating problems early.