On July 1, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education put into effect various work limits on interns and medical residents, including an 80-hour weekly limit, a 24-hour limit on continuous duty time and in-house calls limited to no more than once every three nights. These changes are intended to reduce medical errors caused by residents’ fatigue.
For their study, researchers sent surveys to every neurosurgery training program in the United States and Puerto Rico. A total 377 residents mailed their surveys back.
According to their responses, 36 percent of residents admitted to violating the 80-hour weekly limit occasionally or frequently. A large majority (72 percent) believed the new restrictions will have a negative or strongly negative effect on their training. What’s more, just 6 percent of respondents reported making a medical error after an extended shift.
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