Atul Nakhasi, MD, a medical resident at UCLA Ronald Regan Medical Center, wrote an op-ed in Forbes highlighting the pitfalls of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s decision to lift the work cap on the number of continuous hours a resident may work from 16 hours to 28 hours beginning July 1. Dr. Nakhasi said the physical demands of the job are stressful for physicians just out of medical school and the fact that they have little time to grieve the death of a patient or recover from an emotionally taxing task simply adds to the physician burnout epidemic.
“On my first day in the ICU as a training doctor, my patient’s heart stopped on me. I rushed to call a code blue, attempting to bring his cold lifeless body back with multiple rounds of CPR … In those chaotic moments during his resuscitation, I couldn’t help but think of the clues that were missed by our medical team … He had become more confused and lethargic and had multiple contributing sources of infection … Over 72 hours[,] his simple urinary tract infection spread into his bloodstream causing an uncontrollable inflammatory cascade, mental status changes and ultimately the arrest of his heart. Ever since[,] I’ve wondered whether extreme emotional exhaustion and physical duress contributed [to his death] — [we physicians in training had worked] multiple 28-hour shifts [with] no days off over particular weeks while in the ICU. [Maybe] because of [our schedules], we started to pay a little less attention, care a little less and ultimately surrender to inevitable human exhaustion … I’ll never know for sure[,] but in the end we paid the ultimate price.”
To view the full article, click here.
If you would like to contribute a quote for this series, please email Alyssa Rege at arege@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in “Quotes from the Front Line,” a daily series that highlights the trials and tribulations medical personnel face daily while on the job.
More articles on hospital-physician relationships:
Hospitals ‘rushing’ to obtain accelerated visas for foreign medical students
Can medical school be condensed into 3 years?
Opinion: ‘Medical students should receive business management training earlier’
