Research has shown emergency medicine has the highest burnout levels of any specialty and burnout and poor wellbeing have been linked to absenteeism and rota gaps. The implementation of self-rostering, the process by which individual staff assign their own shifts may be beneficial to medical staff wellbeing.
We undertook a survey of junior doctors to explore the impact of self-rostering on their wellbeing and levels of rest and fatigue. All participants preferred self-rostering to traditional ‘set’ rotas. All respondents noted a positive impact of self-rostering on their wellbeing, welcoming the choice and control, with the majority reporting the ease of attending important life events such as weddings. This study suggests that junior doctors prefer self-rostering over traditional rota systems. Further work is planned to explore the effects of variation in rota design on wellbeing in a more representative multi-centre study.
