Limiting the Hours That House Staff Work
Limiting the Hours That House Staff Work
I wonder if the Residency Review Committee has gone too far in trying to limit the number of hours house officers work so that they will make fewer patient errors.
I agree that it can take fewer hours to train house officers than was formerly expected. But now, I am concerned that teaching sessions, where house officers are taught the things doctors do including the prevention of errors, are poorly attended because they have worked the prescribed number of hours that day and cannot attend. I believe that good doctors stay with their sick patients to observe the signs of improvement or deterioration.
The current emphasis seems too rigid. Surely, there is a way to take care of patients and teach house officers by recognizing that a teaching session is not work and that remaining at a patient's side is the way to learn to be a good doctor.
My view is -- limit the hours as is being done, but do not be rigid. We can appeal to the maturity of the members of the house staff to occasionally remain at the bedside of a patient he or she is trying to treat and perhaps save. Can't we leave it up to the maturity of the house officers to decide whether attending a teaching conference after the patient care activity is over might help him or her make fewer diagnostic errors?
I wonder if the Residency Review Committee has gone too far in trying to limit the number of hours house officers work so that they will make fewer patient errors.
I agree that it can take fewer hours to train house officers than was formerly expected. But now, I am concerned that teaching sessions, where house officers are taught the things doctors do including the prevention of errors, are poorly attended because they have worked the prescribed number of hours that day and cannot attend. I believe that good doctors stay with their sick patients to observe the signs of improvement or deterioration.
The current emphasis seems too rigid. Surely, there is a way to take care of patients and teach house officers by recognizing that a teaching session is not work and that remaining at a patient's side is the way to learn to be a good doctor.
My view is -- limit the hours as is being done, but do not be rigid. We can appeal to the maturity of the members of the house staff to occasionally remain at the bedside of a patient he or she is trying to treat and perhaps save. Can't we leave it up to the maturity of the house officers to decide whether attending a teaching conference after the patient care activity is over might help him or her make fewer diagnostic errors?
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