Workload

To ensure patient safety and resident education, the IOM (Institue of Medicine) recommends a maximum workload of 80 hours per week, averaged over 4 weeks, with a maximum of 16 hours per shift admitting patients. According to the IOM and the ACGME (Accredition Council for Graduate Medical Education), this recommendation is intended to ensure patient safety and, at the same time, to maintain rigorous teaching programmes and improve the supervision by senior doctors.

This discussion is implausible if not ridiculous. To improve patient safety and to ensure the mental and physical health of doctors, the upper limit should be a maximum of 60h per week.

What do you think?

N Engl J Med 359;25:2633-2635

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