First-Year Residents Often Flout 80-Hour Rule, Study Says

A study by the Harvard Medical School has found that 84 per cent of first-year residents work more hours than the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education ethics code allows.

The ACGME code states that residents should not work more than 80 hours per week on average. It also states that shifts should not exceed 30 hours, and that residents should have at least 10 hours off between shifts.

However, most residents who responded to the HMS survey indicated that they worked more hours than permitted under the ethics code.

One of the study's authors noted that a separate survey conducted by the ACGME found a much lower incidence of over-worked residents. He believes the discrepancy in findings is due to a difference in survey methodology, and that the more in-depth questions asked in the HMS survey give a truer picture of residents' behavior.

Staff who supervise residents at the University of Wisconsin Hospital explained that residents are responsible for keeping track of their own hours. Residents enter the hours they work into a computer system; if staff become aware on an intern working excessive hours, they will speak to the intern about the ethics code.

The ACGME ethics code was adopted in 2003 to prevent burnout by overworked residents and to safeguard the quality of patient care.

Source: "Medical Interns Ignore Ethics Code," by Pamela Buechel. The University of Wisconsin Badger Herald, September 12, 2006.