Translation of the word, shift

Question

I have an older Collins dictionary which uses the French word, poste, for shift in this context.  There are several other suggestions but the word, garde, is not even mentioned.  Should I get a new dictionary?

Accepted Answer

Hi Frank,
Just to add to what was said previously, the word ‘garde’ is very specific here and applies to when you are ‘on duty/on call’ ( être de garde) in this context in a hospital.
Take a look at the following page for more explanation-
https://docndoc.fr/2020/gardes-hopital-internes-indemnisation-primes-repos-covid-19/
 
I would keep your dictionary and follow the advice given.

Answer

Hi Frank,Probably not!Have a look here towards the bottom of the first page:-https://www.wordreference.com/fren/posteHope this helps.Jim

Answer

No easy way to find it in a dictionary unless you already know it, Frank.

This is a situation in which online translators can be your friend - not always accurate, but 'garde à l'hopital' does come up in the options list with DeepL - as does poste, équipe etc It seems to be a specialised termnology as far as I can see (not restricted to hospitals though) - definitely in common use in this situation, according to my wife (French).

Having said that, especially if you are using an older dictionary, it is worth at least looking at online bilingual dictionaries in searches - Larousse is quite good, wordreference gives a lot of 'colloquial' uses and allows searches on quite a number of short expressions, which can be helpful. In the end, with these exercises I limit the time searching for words/phrases and just get the answer and search further on that.