![]() During the 30-hour shifts, known as the “on call” day, I admit new patients. I work 26- to 30-hour shifts every four to five days. The study has recently faced attention in the media related to the safety of first year doctors working up to 30 hours per shift. Participating hospitals have been randomized to either limit their first year doctors to 16-hour shifts or to have no restrictions on the length of shifts, though all programs are forbidden from allowing physicians to work longer than 80 hours per week. I am a first-year physician at one of 63 hospitals taking part in a study, known as iCOMPARE, examining the effect of work hour restrictions on patient safety as well as the well-being and education of first-year internal medicine doctors. The patient was complicated, but my shift was just long enough to figure out his disease. I definitively diagnosed him just as the overnight component of my shift ended, and I worked with members of my team to initiate a plan. As I read, I thought of new possible diagnoses and performed additional tests. C was too sick to speak for himself, so I collected medical records from other hospitals he had visited to learn more about his medical history. ![]() I spent the beginning of my 28-hour shift trying to stabilize him as his organs began to fail. C to the Johns Hopkins Hospital for a life-threatening infection. ![]() Baltimore Sun eNewspaper Home Page Close MenuĪ few weeks ago, I admitted Mr.
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