Study Shows Long Hours For Interns Kill

A recent study printed in the PLoS Medicine journal found that extra long shifts for nurses and interns result in an increase of medical errors that harm or kill patients.

The study found that people who worked 24 hours or more at a time 5 times a month were 7 times more likely to report a fatigue related preventable adverse event that contributed to the death of a patient that month. An intern or nurse working between one and 4 shifts longer than 24 hours reported to be 3 times more likely to report the same type of event.

The study included 17,003 monthly reports from 2,737 interns from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. When asked about the studies results the studies authors told Forbes, “The findings are important because interns routinely work extended shifts in U.S. teaching hospitals.” They also noted that “guidelines for graduate medical education in the United States allow up to nine "marathon" shifts (30 hours at a time) a month.”

While many older physicians believe that forcing new doctors to work long grueling hours teaches them to become better doctors and prepares them for the road ahead, statistical analysis shows that the patients are suffering. Is it really worth the patients dieing just so that interns can “see what crunch time is like.” There should definetly be more strict rules and regulations regarding this matter.

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Tim Edwards is the President of No Prescription Needed.com and is the authority in the online pharmaceutical search resource industry. Tim Edwards has been reshaping the pharmacy resource industry since 1998. Tim also composes health and pharmaceutical articles to keep the consumer updated and aware of the ever-changing pharmaceutical search industry. For more related articles or to subscribe to our feed please visit our blog: Shopper’s Drug Mart- Consumer's Bible to BIG SAVINGS Online.

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