3 ms·

Please forgive me for responding to disagree with just one small part of a much larger post that I largely agree with, but I do feel compelled to reply regardin

Please forgive me for responding to disagree with just one small part of a much larger post that I largely agree with, but I do feel compelled to reply regarding resident duty hours. They are not simply long because the "old boys" had long hours; long hours give residents the chance to attain expert-level knowledge in only a few years. Do residents perform more poorly at the end of a shift on various tests of coordination and perhaps even judgment? I will concede that the answer is almost certainly, "Yes." Nevertheless, the evidence also suggests a tradeoff between medical errors due to sleep deprivation, and errors due to patient handoffs. Although there is now a big push for reducing resident duty hours and/or imposing "naptime" requirements, I suspect that will only make the dangers of handoffs even more evident and costly. Were I to be a patient, I would rather have a tired resident performing my surgery or drafting my treatment plan than a fresh resident who doesn't know me.

jerf 17y ago
I'm sure that's the theory, but I'd really like to see the studies that prove it. Because against those studies are all those studies showing how important sleep is to memory formation, judgment, and cognition in general. And I find myself questioning what experience the interns are getting that doesn't involve judgment and memory formation. I'm having a hard time reconciling the two. Additionally, if it actually worked that way, others would be doing it too. Doctors aren't the only people who would like to "attain expert-level knowledge in only a few years"!
- nitrogen 17y ago
  Additionally, if it actually worked that way, others would be doing it too. Doctors aren't the only people who would like to "attain expert-level knowledge in only a few years"! Maybe some of us are doing so indeliberately, by going on marathon code sprees and working 80 hours a week on startups.

jerf 17y ago

I'm sure that's the theory, but I'd really like to see the studies that prove it. Because against those studies are all those studies showing how important sleep is to memory formation, judgment, and cognition in general. And I find myself questioning what experience the interns are getting that doesn't involve judgment and memory formation. I'm having a hard time reconciling the two. Additionally, if it actually worked that way, others would be doing it too. Doctors aren't the only people who would like to "attain expert-level knowledge in only a few years"!

nitrogen 17y ago
Additionally, if it actually worked that way, others would be doing it too. Doctors aren't the only people who would like to "attain expert-level knowledge in only a few years"! Maybe some of us are doing so indeliberately, by going on marathon code sprees and working 80 hours a week on startups.