Resident Workload and Patient Outcomes

Source: ENTToday

I am currently supervising a medical team at VCU Medical Center and am acutely aware of duty hour restrictions for residents (16 hour limit for interns) and resident workload (number of patients and number admissions per shift for an intern)


As with any intervention in medicine we should ask ourselves what evidence exists to support this? Here is a recent  review article published in the American Journal of Medicine. In brief, in a nationally representative sample of internal medicine programs, the investigators found no significant association between resident workload and patient outcomes for common inpatient diagnoses


I am not opposed to work hour and workload limitations and feel that they may lead to a more humane training experience for resident doctors. At present, however, no robust data exists to support that these measures results in safer care.


If only workload restrictions applied to attending physicians....