3 ms·

I don't think I'd want to drive across a bridge if one of the main criteria for career success for a civil engineer was "ability to pull all-nighters 3 times a

I don't think I'd want to drive across a bridge if one of the main criteria for career success for a civil engineer was "ability to pull all-nighters 3 times a week for many months." And yet when we go to the hospital that's exactly who is treating us.

waterhouse 6y ago
To be fair, I think it's more like a 24-hour shift every several weeks, not multiple times a week. And I don't think residents get weeded out if, say, they make errors during 24-hour shifts at >2x the rate of other doctors; I'd guess that, if any weeding occurs, it would be based on the "overall error rate" instead. I do have opinions about how to select doctors. For example, surgeons in particular should be selected a lot more for manual dexterity, and less for ability to memorize facts that appear on the MCAT.