{"id":10392,"date":"2017-03-10T22:09:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T22:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/03\/10\/rookie-doctors-will-soon-be-allowed-to-work-up-to-28-hours-straight\/"},"modified":"2017-03-10T22:09:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T22:09:00","slug":"rookie-doctors-will-soon-be-allowed-to-work-up-to-28-hours-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/rookie-doctors-will-soon-be-allowed-to-work-up-to-28-hours-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie Doctors Will Soon Be Allowed To Work Up To 28 Hours Straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Dwyer<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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Jonathan Kirn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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The maximum workday for first-year medical residents just got substantially longer. The group that sets rules for training doctors announced Friday it will be scrapping the 16-hour cap on shifts worked by doctors who have just graduated from medical school.<\/p>\n

As of July 1, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will allow these first-year residents, also known as interns, to work 24 hours without a break \u2014 and sometimes as long as 28, if a particular transition between doctors demands it.<\/p>\n

The ACGME is discarding a requirement that was implemented in 2011, arguing that the 16-hour cap simply did not deliver on its promises \u2014 and caused some new problems to boot.<\/p>\n

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“The Task Force [review panel] has determined that the hypothesized benefits associated with the changes made to first-year resident scheduled hours in 2011 have not been realized,” the ACGME notes in its announcement<\/a> of the rule changes, “and the disruption of team-based care and supervisory systems has had a significant negative impact on the professional education of the first-year resident, and effectiveness of care delivery of the team as a whole.”<\/p>\n

For instance, task force member Dr. Anai Kothari tells Forbes<\/a> the cap would occasionally prevent doctors from seeing a treatment or surgery through from beginning to end. Patients want to know “you are the doctor taking care of them,” Kothari says.<\/p>\n

“The long shifts are infrequent, but they are important when needed.”<\/p>\n

The group says its conclusion is based on “over 4,200 hours formulating the new requirements, including systematically reviewing over 1,000 published articles and extensive input from all stakeholders.”<\/p>\n