Doctors tire just like everyone else
All across the country, including Pittsburgh, PA a serious flaw has gone unaddressed in the medical profession- sleep deprived doctors. Overworked and exhausted doctors account for a large percentage of medical mistakes that occur each year. My dad is a doctor and I recall him explaining how extreme stretches of sleeplessness were a sort of badge of honor. If you could go 24, 36, sometimes even 48 hours at a stretch without sleep you gained the respect of your peers as a tough and dedicated doctor. What he never spoke of were the consequences of these inhuman feats of endurance. Finally, the issue is being addressed.
In December 2008, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the landmark report, Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and Safety, the most comprehensive study of resident work hours conducted to date. You can read a brief of the report and its recommendations here.
Key Takeaway: Doctors' legendary marathon work hours are linked to a significant increase in attentional failures, performance deficits and medical errors. Furthermore, this same sleep deprivation is linked to increased physician car accidents. Thus the effects of this problem reach far beyond the sphere of the medical realm.
The Institute of Medicine has found that there should be a further reduction in work hours. Other industries responsible for public safety (e.g., the transportation- planes, trains- and nuclear power industries) have been subject to federal regulations that limit the number of hours their employees can work for decades. Similar federal or in-house regulations should be implemented in the medical profession where the stakes are equally as high.
For decades, working endless hours at a stretch was seen as a right of passage in the medical world. In some specialties such as ER medicine and surgery it was seen as a necessity. But the results are in and they show that doctors are human just like the rest of us and get tired the same as everyone else. The fact is that many medical errors are caused by lack of sleep not lack of skill. Often times, the life changing mistakes at the heart of medical malpractice claims were not caused by doctor negligence but were instead the result of the health care culture.
More than 40 organizations have come together to call for safer work hours and better supervision for resident physicians. They are asking for concerned citizens to sign a petition letter at www.wakeupdoctor.org. You can find the petition here. I encourage you to sign and to read the bevy of compelling stories on this site. Share this post :
|
|
0 comments:
Post a Comment