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Is the 80-hour work week law for trainee physicians unrealistic or viable?
Results so far:
| Unrealistic | 75% | 414 votes | Total: 555 votes | |
| Viable | 25% | 141 votes |
Unrealistic
by Kaitlyn Edwards
Created on: September 15, 2010 Last Updated: November 30, 2011
Junior doctors, who are in trainee posts, in the UK now can work a maximum of 48 hours due to the European Working Time Directive.
From a patient's perspective, I would not like to be treated by a doctor who had worked 80 hours in the last week. They will not be functioning correctly, they will be tired, and the will be likely to make mistakes.
From a nurse's perspective, however, the 48 hour working week is not good news. So nurses get more autonomy, take over yet more of the junior doctor's jobs (not a bad thing - professional autonomy is good). But, we don't get extra pay. It means, however, that there are fewer doctors around when you need them. I work on a very busy admissions unit. There are patients from different medical teams, and trying to get hold of the correct team is a nightmare. You start off bleeping the most junior doctors, working upwards, and you find that none of them are in. So you have to phone the consultant or get the on-call team (who should be clerking new patients, not dealing with other issues) to deal with something,
Despite the fact that these junior doctors occupy training posts, they are still the ward doctors, they are qualified. But their first few years out of medical school are for training and consolidation of learning.
I have spoken to many senior doctors who are concerned at the reduced working week of junior doctors. They will have less exposure to patients, less exposure to the clinical scenarios. And this has been combated by giving them time out of clinical duties for training. Great, if that training were useful. I spoken to a junior doctor recently who informed me he had spent a couple of hours in training that explained how cannulation details are inputted in to the computerised observation charts - the computerised observation charts are here, but the cannulation details are on a separate, paper chart. The problem being that doctors cannot input data on to the computerised observation charts, they do not fill out the paper cannulation charts ever and it is something they do not actually need to know about.
Whilst a maximum 48 hour working week is not necessarily the answer, 80 hours a week is surely over working these people, putting their own health at risk and risking the lives of the patients for whom they care.
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Viable
by T. Scott Randolph
Created on: October 27, 2009
Like so many things in life the key is in the wording. Trainee. As long as the trainee is in a position that they are learning from experienced doctors then it isn't such a problem. They have probably put in longer hours when they were in school to get their original degree and then off to medical school. If it makes you feel better, once they become full fledge doctors, the money they make will make them look back and laugh at the hours. If it isn't the money that is the motivation, then the people that they help will serve the same purpose.
There is a philosophy in the military that fits very well in this situation. The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. If you "cut your teeth" so to speak working 80 hour weeks, then if an emergency comes up like say Katrina or 9/11 and you have to work 14, 18 or 20 hour shifts, it is nothing that you haven't done before.
I personally would feel more comfortable knowing that my doctor can work under the pressure of 16 hour days when they are only having to clock in the normal 8. If they can make life saving decisions under the 16 hour scenario, then a measly 8 hours is nothing to them. They would be bright and bushy tailed at work.
It might not even be a bad idea to have older experienced doctors have to go back to their roots once every few years and work like an intern (with supervision, no deaths from bad judgement needed) just so they can appreciate what they have achieved as well as the work that there "peons" are doing for them.
I work two jobs. Between them I clock in about 70 hours a week. That doesn't count the time I spend on Helium and answering questions for an online company called ChaCha. Let me tell you, I don't make anywhere near what a doctor makes. When I was in the Marines, it was not uncommon for the infantry to "work" more than 20 hours a day. Day after day, rain or shine, even in blizzards or 120 degree desert heat. If the doctors want to make that money, then let them earn it with a little sweat and tears.
If you signed up to save lives, it is not a 9 - 5 job. If you can handle the stress of that long of a work week, then you can handle the day to day stress of a normal hospital job. If nothing else, it will help to wean out the people that can't handle the stress. This doesn't make them bad people. I am not cut out to be a concrete worker. I do not care for back breaking physical labor. I had my fill with Uncle Sam. I think it is better to wean them out as trainee's instead of them burning out when it is you or one of your loved ones lives that are at stake.
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