Concept in Definition ABC

The Guards They are a working modality of the health team, their purpose is that medical services are available continuously and permanently to the population Generally, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. On-call shifts can be 12 hours or 24 hours, generally they are 24 hours rotating every 5 or 6 days.

The guards are carried out par excellence in areas such as emergencies, emergency departments, units of intensive care, hospitals, clinics and institutions of confinement such as geriatrics and institutes psychiatric.

In general, the duty units are made up of postgraduate resident doctors under the command of specialists who are called Adjunct Physicians, the medical specialties in charge of these services They are internal Medicine, general surgery, traumatology, pediatrics and obstetrics, in some countries are in charge of emergency physicians. These specialties receive patients, stabilize them, carry out complementary studies and refer them to the corresponding subspecialists when necessary, the subspecialties most frequently related to emergencies are neurosurgery, chest surgery, ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology,

neurology, cardiology and psychiatry.

The number and diversity of available specialties depends on the complexity of the institution. On-call work is a compulsory job since the last years of undergraduate studies for medical students, who initially they spend few hours when they are external and later they must do the full shift during the last year of the degree to be internal During postgraduate studies that can last from 3 to 6 years, they are a fundamental part of the training of the doctor being necessary to acquire skills in the diagnosis and management of critically ill patients or with conditions that may put them at risk life.

The on-call team is not only made up of doctors, it is also made up of professionals from the Nursing, radiology, diagnostic imaging, bioanalysts, laboratory assistants, Bank blood, cleaning staff and maintenance and officers of safety.

The work by guards benefits the community by giving them the opportunity to solve situations that cause them great discomfort or even put their life at risk, however for health personnel, they constitute a work activity that generates physical and mental fatigue, anxiety, stress and disturbance of the personal and family life of those who carry it out. Doctors often have to work the shift after completing the guard that is known as postguard, which leads them to carry out a workday that can reach 36 o even 48 hours, this is associated with the risk that the doctor's fatigue may affect the decision-making process, which can negatively affect the health of patients. patients.

Topics in Guard