Unfortunately, those limitations aren't strictly enforced (the hospitals seem to care more about their bottom line than about their cheap labor's well-being --

Unfortunately, those limitations aren't strictly enforced (the hospitals seem to care more about their bottom line than about their cheap labor's well-being -- so I don't see this changing soon). In addition to that, this stuff accumulates over time, especially in a super-high-stress environment that frequently requires life-or-death decisions. Really think about the limitations described in that article -- interns must have one day off every seven, and cannot work 24h more than one night in three. So they work 16 hour shifts for seven straight days -- which means they have to get to and from work, shower, sleep, and eat some meals during that time -- and that's assuming that handoffs are always performed perfectly on time (they're not, the hospital is hectic), and that you can always leave exactly after 16 hours (you often physically can't, given the nature of the work). And then you get a single day off. Which you use almost entirely for sleep, because not only do you barely have enough time to get a full night's sleep every worknight under "ideal" conditions, but you also have a hard time falling asleep because you're so hyped up/stressed from everything that's happened during the day. And then, somewhere in that mix, you have to work for 24h. That might be ok if you had some chance to recharge your batteries during the past few months/year, but you're so overworked and over-stressed that even your two two-week vacations aren't enough to erase the bags under your eyes. So, in short: this decision is really, really irresponsible. It caters to super-alpha types (which are indeed often attracted to medicine, and especially to surgery) who are willing to sacrifice everything in order to accomplish their lofty career goals as quickly as possible, and to hospitals who want more, cheaper, labor. Having been afforded the opportunity to talk with residents at a couple of the best-regarded hospitals in the country (my girlfriend is going through this "experience" at the moment), and seeing first-hand how this affects them, I'm pretty confident in saying that the handoff problem, while real, is not going to get better by making interns stay for four extra hours after their already inhumane 24h shift.