Last week the National Academies' Institute of Medicine released a report recommending that medical resident work hours be curtailed even more than they were five years ago. This is based on some pretty solid research, mostly from a sleep study group at Harvard. The report is the subject of my latest post at The Differential, which if you're in academic medicine, you should definitely read (if not my post, the report). Unfortunately for me, if the accreditation group makes any changes it will likely be AFTER my intern year when I'm expected to work 30 hour shifts...
Update 12/9/08: My post is getting a lot of comment activity, particularly from resident surgeons who are proudly defending the fact that they violate their 80 hour limits and love it! Check it out! By the way, Pauline Chen at the NYTimes wrote a biased "I didn't have work hours limits when I was a resident and I turned out just fine, thank you!" article about this issue. And there is lively discussion of the topic at the Times' Well Blog as well.
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