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48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 22/5/2009 11:29 AM BST
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Posts: 60
First: 20/5/2009 Last: 23/1/2013 |
Calling all medical students and junior doctors!! The news of the 48 hour working week for junior doctors has got me thinking - am I really that happy that when I qualify I will officially only be able to work this many hours? I'm sure many of you are outraged - of course we shouldn't have to work more than that! But I guess I feel differently. On the one hand, my life outside medicine will be better but on the other, when I joined medical school it was with the knowledge that I would have to work incredibly long hours in my first few years. I am worried that I won't be half the doctor I would have been a few years ago purely due to a lack of time spent on the wards. It needed to change - the hours doctors worked in the past were too much - but have we gone too far? Emily
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 22/5/2009 12:01 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 888
First: 12/11/2008 Last: 2/5/2012 |
If we keep on getting the same training but for fewer hours per week and over fewer years then we're all in trouble. But 48 hours per week should be long enough to train and provide services as long as it's planned and executed well. I think i'd like to see the focus placed more on this than on the number of hours worked. |
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 23/5/2009 12:56 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2
First: 22/5/2009 Last: 23/5/2009 |
Hi my name is monzer , I am an F2 and planning to head for a surgical career . Despite the fact that this 48 hours system will not only mean more time for us with our families but it will be a new era where that image that we share with policemen... doctor who spends all his time in hospital , not having time to enjoy his money or life and ends by divorce from his wife :P still I think it is a nightmare for surgical trainee and we will end up by a new generation of registrars with a lot of certificates and publications and cant do the simplest operation without calling the consultant. I think we will have one of 2 options ... either to increase the training yeards to may be 10 years which i think is not acceptable or to make better use of the F2 year Monzer
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 23/5/2009 10:28 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1603
First: 24/12/2008 Last: 29/5/2013 |
Hi, I think 48 hours of work is not that short enough to make us feel that we are half doctors! I think we should have flexible margin of hours for the rest and case work up. The clinical work is not the work that we do in the ward and it is all done back home and relax. We need to have time for our study, update, case work and research. Then the rest of the time goes to your family, friends and yourself. Therefore, I think medicine is going more towards with modern and more work up so that it would be evidence based and practical to the clinicians. Thanks!
Best wishes, mati |
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 8/5/2012 2:14 PM BST
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 1488
First: 7/4/2011 Last: 17/6/2013 |
In the news today, Edward Kiely, a consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said the EWTD is based on a law “designed for Spanish lorry drivers” but was damaging to doctors’ training and disrupted “continuity of care” for patients. He goes on to state that the EWTD limit of 48 hr weeks, hinders training and has a detrimental effect on patients' continuity of care. He said: “In my training, I did more than 50,000 hours on duty. In the present system they’re limited to 48 hours a week. Which obviously will take 20 years to get to where I was when I finished my training.
Is a 48 hr week a good limit or will it lead to doctors feeling undertrained and underprepared? |
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 8/5/2012 3:28 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 64
First: 24/10/2011 Last: 11/6/2013 |
I trained between 1996 and 1972. After pre-clinicals and a BSc, I started clinical training. This involved an average day of 8 until 8, five days/week with an on call commitment (potentially 24 hours) every other night and every other weekend, apart from 6 weeks holiday annualy. As a result of being "around" I saw many interesting cases that I would not otherwise have seen. I think that current students and junior doctors (my first actual doctor jobs were also every other night every other weekend) will significantly miss out on this experience. I hope that I am a better doctor as a result of seeing many unusual cases and I am concerned about the quality of the experience of students and doctors restriceted to 48 hours/week |
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 8/5/2012 6:20 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 72
First: 29/8/2010 Last: 11/6/2013 |
Were you really 24 years in training, or is that typographical error? See the other thread re burnout - I believe that working those hours, when the burden of tasks seems to have followed us up the seniority tree (doing basic tasks as houseman, then SHO, then reg, then SR and finally as consultant) may well have contributed to burnout in our generation.
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Re: 48 hour week - is anyone else worried??
posted at 8/5/2012 6:42 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 311
First: 7/5/2009 Last: 2/4/2013 |
We need to understand that different specialties have different training programs and requirements. A surgical or Internal medicine trainee might have to spend more than 48 hours to train in a better way but the same cannot be true about a resident in dermatology or psychiatry. Secondly overwork DOES lead to exhaustion and fatigue. Why are we afraid to admit that there needs to be a difference between a donkey and a resident. A Resident needs a break too.
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