4 ms·
This chart in the article makes me suspicious: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i_t8UFPOJVkA/v1/800x-1.png https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/
by frahs 9y ago
This chart in the article makes me suspicious:
https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i_t8UFPOJVkA/v1/800x-1.png https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i_t8UFPOJVk...
The nurses who took 6 hour workdays took roughly the same number of sick days two years later as they did at the start. Technically they took 5% fewer days, and perhaps that's statistically significant, but it's not (for lack of a better word) interesting.
The control group is interesting! Why did a group of nurses taking a normal schedule suddenly have such a huge increase in sick days? I get the feeling that something else affected these results that we're not seeing here. I'm skeptical that the 6-hour workday explains this. Can anyone with more experience in the medical industry chime in to say if it's normal for the number of sick days a nurse takes to increase that much over 2 years (for an 8-hour workday)?
People on hackernews are always skeptical and I usually hate that. I'd like to start a trend of being appreciative. This study took two years to complete! It's hard to foresee things happening that could make the data look strange like this. Maybe they should have taken more information, so they could see which trait in the control group had the highest correlation with increased sick days. But I can't say with certainty that I would have thought to do that. Interesting study, at the very least it's an indicator that there's something interesting going on here worth investigating :).
- sqeaky 9y agoI agree with what you say until you imply skepticism is bad, or that skepticism is at odds with appreciation. I can appreciate and be thankful for research even if I don't trust it or have further questions.
- oconnor663 9y agoIs it really fair to interpret the parent comment to say "you cannot appreciate or be thankful for research if you have further questions"? Or was this just super deadpan and I got wooshed :)
- sqeaky 9y agoI wasn't trying to joke, but I might have whooshed is GP was. I doubt it though.
- frahs 9y agoIt's not the skepticism. It's the lack of perspective. You can be perfectly balanced and skeptical, but your readers will not necessarily take away your perspective if you don't provide some amount of contrast/consider different opinions. If you only post skepticism, readers will just always be salty -- and it really sets the tone of discussion for the future.
- fossuser 9y agoMakes me wonder if the nurses in the control group were around the nurses working fewer hours or if they otherwise knew each other (unclear to me from the article). It could just be that the nurses working the extra hours were annoyed that the others were not and so took more days off telling themselves they deserved it since they were working more hours anyway.