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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing
Session: Reevaluating Current Hospital Work Hour Limits: What are Safe Hours for Physicians, Nurses, and the Public?
3232.1: Monday, November 06, 2006: 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
Oral
Reevaluating Current Hospital Work Hour Limits: What are Safe Hours for Physicians, Nurses, and the Public?
In 2003, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) adopted limits of 30-continuous hours (24 + 6) for resident physicians and a weekly limit of 80. Should those continue to be acceptable hours for the 100,000 resident physicians working in US teaching hospitals? Most familiar with residency training agree that those limits were derived not from scientific principles but rather as a compromise (in an environment where federal regulatory action was being considered) among medical educators and those concerned with the effects of sleep on safety. Topics to be discussed include: the science of circadian rhythms and sleep deprivation and their effects on human performance; current evidence regarding the adverse effects of 24-hour work shifts on provider and patient safety; research that registered nurse shifts of 12 hours or longer nearly triple the risk of making errors and create difficulties remaining alert on duty and driving home; a resident's perspective on making medical assessments and decisions, dealing with patients, families, and co-workers, learning, studying, doing sign-outs and handovers, and then driving home – all while acutely and chronically sleep deprived; and fatigue as a significant public health hazard and describes his proposed state legislation to regulate resident work hours. Errors and fatigue-related accidents are a problem commonly identified in other industries. Are doctors and nurses and their work so different?
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: evaluate existing work hour regulations in the light of current sleep and fatigue research, and, apply this data toward the construction of new proposals to promote quality medical training, and well-being for resident physicians and nurses as well as to protect the public by reducing fatigue-related medical errors and car accidents caused by these health care providers.
Organizer(s):Mark Levy
Moderator(s):Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD
12:30 PMReevaluating current hospital work hour limits: What are "safe" hours for physicians, nurses -- and the public?  [ Recorded presentation ]
Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD, Christopher P. Landrigan, MD, MPH, Ann E. Rogers, PhD, RN, FAAN, Simon Ahtaridis, MD, Richard Moore, Senator, MA, Mark Levy
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement and author's information.
Organized by:Occupational Health and Safety
Endorsed by:Labor Caucus; Medical Care; Public Health Nursing; Socialist Caucus; Vietnam Caucus
CE Credits:CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA