Dec 03 2008
Young Doctors Work Too Long on No Sleep
A new U.S. report is saying that new doctors are working way too many hours with no rest. Studies have shown that doctors working long shifts tend to make more mistakes and errors both in medical treatment and prescribing medications. Five years ago regulations put a cap on the number of hours a physician worked to 80 hours a week. They still need to realign the work load of these young doctors. Most of the time, they are on the front line and won’t leave their patients when they might be in danger. Patients deserve better treatment than this.
Some residents have been so fatigued after leaving their shift, that they have traffic accidents or fall asleep while driving. Some of these residents are working 30 hour shifts so the prior cap on 80 hours a week doesn’t really work if they work that long at one time.
I think something definitely needs to be done about this to give these young residents more rest time to allow them to be better doctors to the patients they treat.
Source: msnbc.com
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