I remember the first time a resident told me he couldn’t take call because the residency advocacy committee had decided that 24 hours was too long. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I was a resident the immediate response would have been to show me the door. While I don’t believe in abusing a surgical resident I don’t think it is up to an “advocacy committee” to dictate resident training. The idea is to make a doctor not a union employee cranking bolts on a car. The most enduring lessons I ever learned were learned when I was under stress and nobody around to bail me out. Surgery is not a classroom acquired skill.
Coming to a hospital near you.....
I've seen the ethics, motivation and dedication deteriorate in the medical field over the past 25 years. There's alot to be said for newer technology and surgical techniques... but I still try to find the "old horse Dr." who's seen everything......for routine checkups. They can diagnose tonsilitis by looking at your toenails. (figuratively speaking of course) *chuckle*
With that said....I've always had respect for anyone who can stay awake and work for 24-36hrs, chugging 3-4 pots of coffee at a sitting... and still remember their own name. ;)
As a patient, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing some years ago, when I’d had a fever that was climbing a degree an hour, hit 103, and I decided to drive myself to the emergency room before I passed out (lived alone). So after an unreasonable delay in the dead quiet emergency room, while I’m hyperventilating harder and harder and can still feel my fever rising, I finally get stuck in a little room, a nurse takes my vitals, notes what I’m telling her about the onset of the fever only a few hours earlier, sticks an IV in my arm to try to hydrate and cool me, and sends for the doctor. It’s about 3:00 AM now, and this is definitely a resident. She looks at the chart, takes my temp again, listens to my chest with a stethoscope, and at least pretends to listen as I tell her the same thing I told the nurse — little bit of runny nose this afternoon, then started feeling feverish in the evening, started taking my temp, left for emergency room when it hit 103. “Okay, and your main complaint is the wheezing, right?” she says. Uh, wheezing? I didn’t say anything about wheezing, because I wasn’t wheezing. “No,” I say, I wasn’t aware of any wheezing; did you hear wheezing when you listened to my chest?”, I ask. “No,” she says. WTF???? I come into the ER with a fever of 103+ and PERFECTLY clear lungs, which I was demonstrating with deep and fast hyperventilation as my body tries desperately to cool itself, and this doctor imagines my “main complaint” is non-existent wheezing! And she continued to say and do things that didn’t make sense even after that.
No, doctors do NOT benefit from spending endless hours treating patients when they haven’t enough sleep for their brains to work properly. And patients end up bearing the brunt of this insanity, because they’re given no choice whatsoever in the matter. If the young doctors had a shred of decency left after their med school brainwashing, they’d simply go on strike until the system is brought to it knees (which would obviously take under 24 hours, since the system is so intensely dependent on this slave labor).
As a patient, I want to be diagnosed and treated by an intelligent rational human being whose brain is in working order. I’d much rather be treated by a nurse or physician assistant whose gotten 8 hours sleep in the last 24, than by a doctor who’s so sleep-deprived s/he can’t think.