4 ms·
That's a really interesting point I'd never thought of before. Do you know of any discussions/articles on this topic? Would be interested to learn more, I alway
by TheFreim 5y ago
That's a really interesting point I'd never thought of before. Do you know of any discussions/articles on this topic? Would be interested to learn more, I always just assumed long doctor shifts was a combination of lack of workers and stinginess.
- skeeter2020 5y agoAlso, unlike say a trucker, the work of doctors and nurses is very reactive to environmental conditions (feast or famine), so it allows for limited downtime where you might sneak in a nap between 20-60 minutes, or might be 100% your entire shift. It might make scheduling slightly easier is some regard, but it's actually a very expensive way to staff.
- NineStarPoint 5y agoAs a follow up question, I know I’ve read a lot about the handover issue in the general sense. Does anyone know of any research that has been done to see if the long shifts exacerbate the issue? It wouldn’t surprise me if handover would go more smoothly if the people weren’t at the end of such massive shifts, but it’s equally possible that intuition is wrong. What I don’t know is if there exist places where they tried shorter shifts in recent memory for us to even have the data on.
- TheFreim 5y agoYeah, what specifically is causing the issues with handover? Lack of information transfer seems like the obvious issue which being very exhausted could be responsible for.
- nradov 5y agoThis article has pretty good data on the patient safety impacts of doctor shift length. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1900669 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1900669