Professional Documents
Culture Documents
4 Currentevent
4 Currentevent
Mr. Wisner
World History
1st M/W
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/health/us-doctors-residents-24-hour-shifts.html?rre
f=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience
A. A professional organization that sets work rules for graduates from medical school in
the U.S. is now allowing first-year doctors in training to work shifts lasting as long as 24
hours. The current limit is 16 hours, making the new limit 8 hours longer. This change is
being made to prevent confusion in patients when they suddenly have to have a change in
doctors when that doctors shift ends. Many believe this change will help improve patient
care significantly and help the doctors not to have their work and learning disrupted.
B. Director of health research at an advacy group called Public Citizen, Dr. Michael A.
Carome said, We know sleep-deprived people can have impaired motor skills and their
memory can deteriorate,. The 16 hour limit was put into place in 2011 in hopes that it
would prevent mistakes by first-year doctors. This limit has proven to not help, and it was
reported that patient care was disrupted due to these limits. Two randomized trials, one
with surgeons in training and another with specialists in internal medicine, were used to
study this controversial stubject. The results from the surgical residents proved that the
longer shifts had no apparent effects on patient care, while the other study is still
underway.
C. A meeting was held last year at around the time the results from the study were
published, and it was decided that the limit for first-year doctors seemed to need a
change. It was apparent to them that not only was patient care dirupted, but so was the
doctors learning. Dr. Rowen K. Zetterman, co-chairman of the task force, said,
Everyone agreed that the 80-hour maximum was appropriate, but we heard from a large
number of organizations that 16 hours was not successful,. The doctors do not have to
work 24-hour shifts, but they can choose to stay if they feel like they need to. The weekly
limit of 80 hours will not be changed.
Relation to a subtheme:
I can relate this event to the theme of science and new technologies because it
involves a possible improvement in the medical field. The medical field is extremely
science-heavy and medical improvements can affect the world and the lives of others for
years to come. The involvement of research studies to help make the decision to longer
the maximum hours further enforces the scientific theme of this article.