Actually it’s a nefarious way of forcing recent medical school graduates to provide below-cost care so that politicians can continue to buy people’s votes with various forms of free healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid, mandates to treat illegal aliens, and various other programs). The socialist hospital system in this country couldn’t possibly stay afloat without all this forced labor being provided at a tiny fraction of free-market cost.
And stumbling around a hospital in a sleep-deprived stupor for 4 years never made anybody a good doctor. Some manage to become good doctors anyway, but it’s in spite of, not because of the residencies. Plenty of solid medical research has shown the colossal negative effects of sleep deprivation on learning, reaction time, and physical and mental health. And a rather large study a couple of years back found that overworked residents were making a colossal number of potentially lethal errors each year, and that 90% of those errors were being caught by nurses before the patient was harmed. Funny how the nurses, with a tiny fraction of the “training” these doctors have, can detect so many doctors’ errors. Maybe its because most of them have gotten a healthy amount of sleep the night before.
I’ve been treated by so many utterly incompetent doctors over the years — all of whom had been through one of these purportedly wonderful, invaluable residency programs — that no one is ever going to convince me it serves any purpose but political vote buying with a side order of hazing. The long list of doctors — GPs, ER doctors, gastroenterologist — who spent TEN YEARS telling me and my mother that the intense and sudden pain I kept having right where the gall bladder is located (and that’s where I kept pointing, over and over and over again), often accompanied by vomiting, was 1) “just a little stomach bug — drink clear liquids and take some Tylenol”, 2) “a pre-ulcerous condition — just drink some Maalox every time it hurts” — that went on for years, as I downed literally gallons of Maalox, and 3) my favorite “honey, you just have a tummy-ache because your parents are fighting” — all went through these supposedly wonderful residencies. But somehow they still didn’t have an effing clue that sudden sharp pains, often accompanied by vomiting, that keep recurring in a patient who points right to her gall bladder every single time, just *might* be GALLSTONES. They finally figured it out when my common duct got completely blocked by stones, such that not a drop of bile could reach my stomach, causing it to back up from my liver into my bloodstream, turning me a lovely shade of yellow and rendering me unable to even keep down their favorite clear liquid, Gatorade. After my surgery (7 hours in surgery, 11 days in the hospital, because all the years of delay had made such a mess of things), the surgeon told me my liver had been in imminent danger of rupturing. In all likelihood, any nurse or first year medical student could have identified the problem as being in my gallbladder the first time I showed up in front of them and pointed at my gall bladder as I doubled over and winced in pain, especially after noting the lack of fever or any other symptoms and noting that my mother mentioned I’d vomited just before we arrived.
really?
Cause I'd suspect that over 90% of the good doctors were sleep deprived during their training. Maybe even more.
Plenty of solid medical research has shown the colossal negative effects of sleep deprivation on learning, reaction time, and physical and mental health.
gee, ya rilly think? How 'bout this "study"
Hospitalwide adverse drug events before and after limiting weekly work hours of medical residents to 80make sure you read the RESULTS of the study!
Here's another "medical study" for ya... make sure you read the results...AGAIN!
.... of course I'm only citing real articles and not just spouting off on anecdotal stuff that just sounds really, really, really... like medical, right?
You know what anecdotal versus blinded studies are and statistical differences... and stuff like ya know... Chi-Squared Test of Association, Independent Random Variables (important in these studies, huh?), or the probability-probability (P-P) plot that is constructed using the theoretical cumulative distribution function to test your optimal sleep duration model, right???
The long list of doctors — GPs, ER doctors, gastroenterologist — who spent TEN YEARS telling me and my mother that the intense and sudden pain I kept having right where the gall bladder is located (and that’s where I kept pointing, over and over and over again)....
well gee, right upper quadrant pain after eating and with possibly referred pain to the shoulder, flatus, fat, and with floating turds in the toilet..
ya, I might have ordered an ultrasound and if negative and ERCP... but that's just me and my GI doc and surgeon friends... who also trained at really benign sleepy time places like UT Southwestern Parkland, Duke, Brigham, MGH...
those residents get TONS of sleep.................. when they retire or die.
That's what they do.. they WORK their tails off to learn every single thing that they can.
If you think being a doctor is just reading a book 9-5, going to the golf course and banging nurses... you watch too much television.
you sound like you have got other "issues" with all doctors. my advice to you is to go to a nurse practitioner that gets tons of sleep or a Physicians assistant to get your medical care. It's still a free country and there are plenty of qualified nurse (as you pointed out) and PA's that get lots of sleep during their training in order to pay attention to your medical needs.
As for me and my family of 5.... well if they need surgery, they're going to a guy that busted his balls for 5 years in a general surgical program and can walk around a belly with a lap scope or crawl in their up to his elbow, cause he's seen a thousand operations in his life and had someone's life in his hands come rain or shine, day or night, Christmas or Ramadan for year upon year. ..... but that's just me.
You can have the guy that had a 40 hour work week, checked out when the big hand hit the 12 and is just a fresh daisy for his 5 year residency.... or if that's too long and too hard, maybe they can shorten it up to a 9 week online residency so he doesn't even have to get out of bed.