Shorter hours said to shortchange residents

Internal medicine residents in California reported being less satisfied with educational experiences after hours were capped.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Feb. 13, 2006.

If a recent study that found residents believed administrative tasks during their compressed work weeks squeezed out educational activities is representative of programs nationwide, educators said the quality of U.S medical residencies could be compromised.

"My fear is that there will be an educational cost to many programs in the short term. If all you do is meet the new regulations and you don't re-engineer the entire system, you can compromise education," said Robert Wachter, MD, study co-author and associate chair of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

The study, published in the January Academic Medicine, surveyed 164 internal medicine residents at three UCSF-affiliated hospitals shortly after the 80-hour-week restrictions went into effect in 2003. Among the findings:

• 69% reported spending the same or less time in educational activities such as teaching and conferences.
• 29% said their ability to attend conferences was negatively affected.
• 60% said they had not increased the time they spent reading.
• 78% said the hours limit had a positive impact on their quality of life.
• 72% said the time they spent doing nonmedical-oriented tasks at the hospital was unchanged.

"Because these young doctors take patient care very seriously, they'll skip the lecture when faced with a choice of a lecture versus patient care chores," said Susan Wall, MD, senior associate dean for UCSF's medical school.