80 hour workweek

[Pandamonium]

I can't remember what lawsuit brought on the 80-hour workweek limit for medical residents. Google isn't helping very much. I'm just getting a bunch of articles debating the pros and cons of the 80hr limit. Does anyone know offhand?

 

[acemcmac]

No, but I can tell you that it's really stupid considering the fact that TIRED PEOPLE MAKE MORE MISTAKES. Residency is the dumbest concept ever concieved.

 

[Descartes]

If you plan on going into software, plan on 80-hour weeks if you want to be successful. It's not that you have them all the time, but there could be periods where you have a few months of nothing but 60-80 hour weeks. It's a reality of the industry. Software is high-novelty, high-change and highly non-deterministic. There are niches where this is not true of course, but that's an accurate representation of the industry for the most part.

 

[GeneValgene]

i've worked 80 hour weeks in business consulting...it sucks

but it can't be as bad as residency...where you are working weird hours all the time and odd shifts

 

[Pandamonium]

80hrs is the limit imposed legally as of 2003- most residents since then have found it difficult to balance their responsibilities in light of the new laws. It wasn't unusual for surgical residents to exceed 120hr weeks.

The question though, was whether anyone knew what lawsuit caused the limit to be put in place. Anyone? It was some girl in NY, IIRC.

 

[Jeeebus]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/healt...07c8d8b28e2972b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

In July 2003, just after this study concluded, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education set limits on interns' hours on duty.

They now are limited to averages of 80 hours per week and no more than three on-call shifts a week, over a four-week period. Interns can work up to 24 straight hours, plus up to six additional hours for educational activities, and must get one day off per week on average.

 

[KLin]

http://www.savetheresidents.com

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Descartes
If you plan on going into software, plan on 80-hour weeks if you want to be successful. It's not that you have them all the time, but there could be periods where you have a few months of nothing but 60-80 hour weeks. It's a reality of the industry. Software is high-novelty, high-change and highly non-deterministic. There are niches where this is not true of course, but that's an accurate representation of the industry for the most part.

high hours in IT is a lot different than high hours in the medical field as in you dont somebodys life on the line typing code and fueled on nodoze.

you cant compare the two.

 

[Pandamonium]

Thanks but I've tried those links. There was a lawsuit involving a little girl in a NY teaching hospital (IIRC) where it was found that the resident made a careless error. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that said resident had been on the 30th hour or so of his/her shift. That lawsuit is what got people up in arms about resident hours and is the reason for the studies relating sleepiness and accidents in the medical field. I'm trying to figure out what the name of the lawsuit was, and can't seem to find it.

The NYT article names the research following the lawsuit I'm trying to name, and the savetheresidents.com link is about an unrelated class-action lawsuit. Neither cite the lawsuit I'm trying to identify.

 

[Slew Foot]

Look up "18-year-old Libby Zion"

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Most people don't realize that the 40Hr work week came from Henry Ford. He found 40Hr weeks to be the most productive. If a guy who is primarily concerned about thier bottom line pushes for 40Hr weeks, there must be a reason for it