US Surgical Residents want longer hours

At a pre-internship meeting last month I heard that junior doctors in NSW will be limited to working 45 hour weeks. Any overtime has to be justified with a form including numbers of all patients seen.

The purpose of this measure is nominally to reduce mental burnout and errors. There may also be an economic incentive for the state hospitals. But I wonder what the average junior doctor thinks about these new rules?

It seems surgical residents in the USA are not happy with their work hours being reduced to under 80 per week since 2003. A study (http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=69l,17sem,osy,49wz,gwy4,lg2m,1epg), distributed electronically to all resident and associate members of the American College of Surgeons, asked respondents to rate the impact of work-hour limits on their education. It found that almost half of surgical residents felt work-hour restrictions did have a negative impact. Furthermore, 52 percent said a schedule of 60 to 80 hours was appropriate, and 43 percent said 80 to 100 hours would suffice.

Some even claim that treatment errors have increased due to increased patient handovers. Go figure!