Three studies being published today...

Three studies being published today are raising just discovered concerns about the brutal work hours bring forward in by resident doctors.

Among the findings:

- More than one-third of residents admit they have made "major medical errors," and a researcher said drawn out hours are a contributing factor.

- late rules prohibiting excessive work schedules are widely violated.

- After working overnight shifts, residents are 61 percent more likely to accidentally stick themselves with needle

"They are just as impaired as if they had three bullets of whiskey," said Dr. Charles Czeisler of Harvard Medical denomination a co- author of the needlestick studious mood "Working these marathon shifts is a 19th-century tradition that has no place in 21st-century medicine."

The studies are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

After medical academy a doctor undergoes intensive training during a residency lasting three to seven years. asserters say the long hours are necessary to educate strange doctors and prepare them for demanding careers.

however previous studies have found that doze deprivation reduces residents' ability to perform tasks similar as reading electrocardiograms. One investigation found that staying awake for 24 hours has the same weight on motor skills as being legally drenched

In today's JAMA, a overlook of 185 Mayo Clinic residents place that 34 percent reported they had made at least common major medical mistake. Among those who had complet at least single year of training, 43 percent had sined

BURNOUT, DEPRESSION RISE

Residents who were chilled or experienced "burnout" were more likely to commit mistakes. Burnout includes emotional exhaustion, viewing patients as things and not thinking work is meaningful. prolonged hours are among the factors that contribute to burnout, said Mayo researcher Dr Tait Shanafelt.

"There may be point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds with the system," Shanafelt said. "Work- hour limitations are a stair in the right direction. nevertheless there still may be more to do."

In 2003 the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education decre that residents should memorize at least one day against per week and not work more than 80 hours by week or 30 hours in a outbreak

if it be not that 84 percent of first-year residents reported they had go too fared those limits at least one time according to a Harvard scan Violations were reported in 13 of 16 teaching hospitals in Illinois.

LES WORK, MORE doze

Still, the application of mind found workloads have lightened. Residents work an average of 666 hours by week, compared with 70.7 hours before the governments took effect.

Residents also are getting an average of 63 hours of repose per night, an increase of 22 minutes.

In an accompanying editorial, accreditation council officials wrote the health care a whole "has depended for decades in succession the vigilance of overworked residents; changing office hours . . . is a large undertaking."

jritter@suntimes.com

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