Sleepy Interns Committing Key Errors, Study Shows (Reuters)


[Source: Yahoo! News - Health http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=751 ]

Reuters - America's doctors-in-training are
committing serious errors as a result of being forced to work
over 80 hours a week, says new research which suggests the U.S.
medical community has been slow to tackle sleep deprivation in
its staff.

permalink: comments: feedURL:http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/health

More evidence that humane hours must be given to physicians in training, not only for their sake, but also for patient safety. Fortunately in anesthesiology, most residents work shift hours, so that after twenty four hours, you can go home. Other specialties still regularly work greater than 30 hours shifts.

Still, anesthesiologist residents can make mistakes after a difficult hours of work. During my second year of residency, I ended up falling asleep at the wheel when I was going home after a particularly long week of work. My truck was the only things that suffered significant damage and I was able to walk away with minor scratches.

Posted: Wed - October 27, 2004 at 06:48 PM          

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