Why Do First-Year Doctors Should Not Work More Than 24-Hours

”One wrong move, and you destroy your career.”-Joel Edgerton. According to the United States Department of Labor, working a 24-Hour shift can cause the employees to have emotional and physical stress. If any employee is working a 24-Hour shift, they must receive at least five hours of sleep. “The ACGME adoption of this dangerous proposal displays a reckless disregard for the lives and health of thousands of medical residents and their patients nationwide,” Dr. Michael said in a statement. As shown by the quote, having the medical residents work longer then 24-hour shifts are dangerous for both the residents and the patients. First year doctors should not work more than 24-hours because they would be too exhausted, too inexperienced to stay

In the text, we see that “...inexperienced residents will be working too many hours to remain alert and focus on the critical decisions they make.” (Kolata and Hoffman1) When working, everyone has a certain amount of time were they can’t remain focused anymore. It showed in a survey that about 55 percent of doctors are unfocused due to the long shifts. If a patient was being worked on when their doctor was unfocused, the doctor could harm the patient as they would still be inexperienced. First-year students need to remain alert so the critical decisions they make are excellent choices. As Kolata and Hoffman observed, “...tried to protect the first-year students from working too many hours. In 2011, the council required that first-year residents, unlike more experienced residents, work no longer than 16 hours in one stretch.” (Kolata and Hoffman1) The council wanted to make the residents shifts shorter to prevent further mistakes into the future. As shown by the quote, the accreditation council wanted to make sure the first-year residents would stay focused. Sadly, the 16-hour shifts did not work as the doctors weren’t getting enough education. Having the shorter shifts did let the residents become more focused and alerted by every decision they made. According to Morris, “Such questions are intended to protect the public, based on the idea that impaired or distressed physicians

As Kolata and Hoffman stated on page 2, “‘Most people want to be their for the patient if the patient needs them,’ he sad. No one, Dr. Kothari added, wants to leave in the middle of an operation.” (Kolata and Hoffman2) Through the quote, I can tell that the doctors want to be with their patients at all times. The importance of being a good doctor is to make sure every patient is doing okay. So with the help of the 24-hour maximum shifts, the medical residents are still able to go and see their patients throughout their shifts. In the text, we can see that, “‘If you are a pediatric first-year resident taking care of a critically ill patient, and the child dies, do you just walk away from the family because the 16 hours are up?’ Dr. Kothari asked.” (Kolata and Hoffman2) It’s horrible enough to end up in the hospital, but it’s even worse if someone dies there. Shown through the quote, if you were a doctor, would you leave because your shift was over? As a medical personnel, you’d want to comfort and be with the family, not walk away because you don’t care and you just want to go home. So with 24-hour shifts, all first-year doctors would be allowed to stay with their patients without leaving early or staying all night and exahsting theirselves. As Marla Paul, a journalist, said, “Residents in the other half had the flexibility to reorganize their hours to best care