June 28th, 2010
Duty Hours Redux
Andrew M. Kates, MD
Most of us agree that the limits put on duty hours for physicians-in-training in 2003 were only a partial success. Now, the ACGME Task Force on Quality Care and Professionalism has posted Proposed Standards, which again attempt to improve the working conditions and learning environment for physicians-in-training plus the safety of patients. The proposed standards don’t alter the maximum hours, but do address other workload issues, patient care transitions, the educational and supervisory needs of physicians-in-training, and the particular requirements of different specialties. A newly published Sounding Board in the New England Journal of Medicine delineates these and discusses the “moral responsibility” of the medical education community.
Do the proposed standards address the problems that you’ve seen on the hospital floor? What would you have included?
NEJM Journal Watch — Recent Cardiology Articles- Anticoagulation in Patients with Cancer-Associated Pulmonary Embolism: How Long is Long Enough?
- Spironolactone Use After Percutaneous Intervention for Acute Myocardial Infarction
- CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing for Transthyretin Cardiomyopathy
- Does Colchicine Reduce Cardiac Events After Myocardial Infarction?
- First-Line Therapy for Ventricular Tachycardia After MI: What's the Best Approach?