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Should Resident Work Hours be Limited?
A recent Washington Post article examines whether limiting resident work hours is best for patients and residents. What do you think?
Two years ago, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education reduced the maximum allowable shift for first-year-residents from 30 hours to 16 hours. In doing so, it cited studies linking fatigue to serious medical errors and injuries to residents, according to a recent article appearing in the Washington Post.
But according to the article, a new series of studies raises the question: Did limiting work hours actually make things worse?
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan have found that shorter shifts lead to "work compression," according to ThePost. Interns cram more work into fewer hours and they have less opportunity to spend time with patients as their conditions evolve.
The Post also cited a March editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine that stated that shorter workdays are increasing handoffs, which can cause errors as patients are transferred from doctor to doctor.
What do you think? Should first-year resident work hours be limited to 16-hour shifts? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Cognitive Biases in Healthcare
September 27th 2021Physicians Practice® spoke with Dr. Nada Elbuluk, practicing dermatologist and director of clinical impact at VisualDx, about how cognitive biases present themselves in care strategies and how the industry can begin to work to overcome these biases.
The Paperless Practice: Virtual care strategies
August 30th 2021Physicians Practice® spoke with Michael Morgan, at the time the CEO of Updox and a contributor to Physicians Practice, to discuss the new technologies that you should consider implementing in your practice and why implementing a virtual care strategy will be so important post COVID.
