They’re responding by considering going on strike:
Like most junior doctors, he worked 12 days without a break, including 16-hour shifts. The shortest day was a busy 10 hours ending at 6pm -– scarcely enough time to get home to read his two children a bedtime story. Somehow, he also found time to study for and pass a tough exam.“I was super-stressed out.”
The death of one of his patients proved the final straw. “I became too scared to see a patient in case I killed one. If you cock up, someone dies.”
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{ 4 comments }
Yep, medial training is demanding. Choosing to have a family at the same time only makes one more stressed. I’d like to find some statistics on residents with familes; it seems like many more now have kids during training now than in the past. Only one resident out of 18 in my class had children. He was a real burden for the rest of us because he felt entitled to time off for his kids but was never willing to reciprocate. Back at you slobo todorovic!
I worked every day (and many overnight call shifts in-house) from my first day of internship, which was a call day, for seventy-three days straight, before having a day off. That year, my longest workweek was 136 hours. I figure in hours worked, I put in nearly three normal years of ordinary work (without three years’ vacation, though). Was it stressful? Yes. Horrible on a social life, Horrible on sleep. And yes, I had to study for exams during that time.
What is your point Anon 2:42- that because its the way you did it in the past that everyone forward should do the same? 136 hours of work in a week that only contains 168 hours total is absurd, not to mention reckless. People who are sleep deprived have an even stronger delay in reaction time and dimished hand-eye coordination than drunks. It is downright dangerous to treat patients in those conditions. I don’t think bragging about what you went through, even if you see it as a badge of honor, is constructive.
I’m all for the 80-hour cap. If the concern is for residents not seeing enough patients or getting the same amount of training, then why not extend the length of the residency programs? Four years of eighty hour weeks would be more training than three years of hundred hour weeks.
This is from a nurse friend who spent time in New Zealand and she observed that they have more mental asylums there than hospitals. I’m not sure if it’s true.
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