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Are 8 hour shifts healthy for patients? More handovers is strongly correlated with poorer patient outcomes. We need to strike a balance between the falloff in a
by AQuantized 5y ago
Are 8 hour shifts healthy for patients? More handovers is strongly correlated with poorer patient outcomes. We need to strike a balance between the falloff in ability that comes with consecutive hours awake past a certain point, and minimizing handover.
- snowwrestler 5y agoYou’re not wrong, but when doctors work longer shifts, they work fewer days of the week. The total weekly hours are the same, they are just distributed differently.
- whatever1 5y agoRefineries have blown up because of messed handovers, is the solution to have the console operators on 24h/7 days-a-week shifts? Like the sibling comment said, if you are overworking then the process is broken. The thing that I added, is that maybe the process remains broken because the employer finds it profitable.
- AQuantized 5y agoNHS doctors will typically have a significant part of their rota made up of 'long days'. The 'solution' is never 24/7, or less hyperbolic but still overly long hours, because there is a median decrease in cognitive function that renders additional benefit from fewer handovers moot. But as regards 'overworking', while that is certainly true for many US residents in particular, I think the majority of people would be overworked on a surgeon's schedule. Yet reducing it significantly would probably be much worse for patients and decried by surgeons. My viewpoint is mostly informed by the British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh's opinion on working hours.