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- Eighty-hour workweeks! Thirty-hour workdays!
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- Dick Meister
It's time that Congress helped the highly exploited young medical residents who provide so much of our hospital care -- the doctors-in-training who are forced to put in 80-hour workweeks, often as many as 30 hours in a single shift. Think of the effects on their well-being and the possible dangers to patients who are treated by exhausted, sleep-deprived residents. The need for Congress to mandate fewer working hours for the residents, as well as other reforms, is made very clear in a new report compiled at Congress' request by the highly respected Institute of Medicine.
It's time that Congress helped the highly exploited young medical residents who provide so much of our hospital care -- the doctors-in-training who are forced to put in 80-hour workweeks, often as many as 30 hours in a single shift. Think of the effects on their well-being and the possible dangers to patients who are treated by exhausted, sleep-deprived residents. The need for Congress to mandate fewer working hours for the residents, as well as other reforms, is made very clear in a new report compiled at Congress' request by the highly respected Institute of Medicine.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
It's time that Congress helped the highly exploited young medical residents who provide so much of our hospital care -- the doctors-in-training who are forced to put in 80-hour workweeks, often as many as 30 hours in a single shift. Think of the effects on their well-being and the possible dangers to patients who are treated by exhausted, sleep-deprived residents. The need for Congress to mandate fewer working hours for the residents, as well as other reforms, is made very clear in a new report compiled at Congress' request by the highly respected Institute of Medicine.
Broadcast History
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Transcript
It’s way past time for Congress to come to the aid of the medical residents who are among our most important providers of hospital care. I mean the young doctors-in-training who are being forced to work 80 hours a week … often as long as 30 hours in a single shift.
That’s right: 80 hours a week …30 hours in a single shift.
Think of how that must feel. And think of the possible effects on hospital patients .. the possible errors made by sleep-deprived residents in treating them.
The urgent need for Congress to try to remedy the situation is made extremely clear in new report compiled at the request of Congress by the widely respected Institute of Medicine.
Not surprisingly, the institute found that exhaustion and possible error is common among the 100,000 residents who work in the country’s hospitals.
They work as residents for three or more years after graduating from medic...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:Commentator Dick Meister explores a critical health care issue that's been largely ignored.
OUTRO:Dick Meister is a veteran labor journalist.
