Night duty doctor jobs: what to expect and how to find them

Nights are when hospitals most often need extra cover, so many locum and part-time shifts are night duty. If you are thinking about taking night duty doctor jobs, here is what the shift involves, how to prepare and how to find nights that fit around the rest of your week.

What a night duty shift involves

• Ward RMO nights: reviewing patients the nursing team is worried about, admitting new patients and escalating to the consultant on call.
• Emergency RMO nights: triage and first treatment of casualty presentations through the night.
• Anaesthesia on call: emergency theatre cases and obstetric cover through the night.
• ICU nights: managing ventilated and critically ill patients, and admissions from the emergency department.

Every night duty starts and ends with a handover, which matters more at night than at any other time.

How to prepare

1. Sleep beforehand. A few hours of sleep in the afternoon makes the early morning hours much safer.
2. Arrive early for handover. Know who is unwell, who is pending review and what the day team expects to happen overnight.
3. Know the escalation path. Find out who is on call for each specialty and how to reach them before you need them.
4. Check in on arrival. On MeddStaff you scan the hospital QR code when you arrive, which starts your timesheet for the shift.

Look after yourself

Space your nights out where you can, keep something to eat and drink with you, and give yourself time to recover afterwards. Choosing nights that fit your week, rather than stacking them, is one of the advantages of picking your own shifts.

How to find night duty doctor jobs

Every shift on MeddStaff shows its start and end time and the pay before you apply, so it is easy to pick out the nights. Download the MeddStaff Doctor app, get verified, set the hours you are free and apply to the shifts that fit. See what is open now in Jaipur, or browse RMO shifts.