Doctors In Training Will Be Getting More Sleep

It sounds great on the surface. According to new educational rules for interns and residents, sleep-deprived rookie doctors will be getting shorter work shifts the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education announced.

Maximum work shifts for first-year residents only are being cut from 24 hours to 16 hours. The 80-hour-weekly limit remains, but strategic napping is strongly recommended. I could tell you about when I was young and worked days at a time and any doctor over thirty five would tell you the same -- much like parents saying they walked miles in the snow to school.

Certainly, we have learned that sleep deprived physicians make mistakes and no one should have a doctor who has been up days on end. But there is another side to these dramatically reduced hours. Young doctors are getting used to a nine to five schedule. Who will take calls in the middle of the night in twenty years? How will the system pay for other doctors to work night shift? Continuity of care will be replaced by shift work coverage and that lack of continuity is filled with its own risks.

The so-called pendulum in training doctors may need to come more toward center.

Reported By: Dr. Brian McDonough, KYW Newsradio Medical Editor