80 hours and higer standards

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lucas

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I realize that with the new 80 hour work week, there will be more pressure than ever on Surgical residents and the residency programs to perfrom at higer standards. Since every resident will now technically have time to sleep and read, there should be no mistakes in the OR or wards and everyone should be getting 100% on their exams! I have heard, while on the interview trail, that programs that dont maintain such high standards may get the boot and even without probation. I have also been told that the RRC is actively looking to close surgery programs down. My question is: Has the 80 hour work week really had enough test drives to show it will really improve the standards of every surgical residency program? Some smaller programs (with maybe 13-15 residents) where I have interviewed at are really feeling the squeeze since they dont have the man power to cover for the 80 hour work week.

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Can you cite sources for this information? I'm specifically interested in hearing or reading from a credible source about the RRC wanting to close down surgery programs and an expectation that there will be a 100% pass rates on the board exams.

NO program can ever guarantee a 100% pass rate on the board exams, nor can the RRC demand it. Imagine if the LCME stated that 100% of every medical school class must pass steps I and II or the medical school would be closed down.
 
No program will ever "get the boot" without a probationary period. And there will be options for appeals before the ultimate death penalty. As for 100% scores by all residents - if this was the case, then no program would dare accept non-AOA candidates and would rather go unfilled...
 
Originally posted by lucas
I realize that with the new 80 hour work week, there will be more pressure than ever on Surgical residents and the residency programs to perfrom at higer standards. Since every resident will now technically have time to sleep and read, there should be no mistakes in the OR or wards and everyone should be getting 100% on their exams! I have heard, while on the interview trail, that programs that dont maintain such high standards may get the boot and even without probation. I have also been told that the RRC is actively looking to close surgery programs down. My question is: Has the 80 hour work week really had enough test drives to show it will really improve the standards of every surgical residency program? Some smaller programs (with maybe 13-15 residents) where I have interviewed at are really feeling the squeeze since they dont have the man power to cover for the 80 hour work week.

Hi there,

You totally miss the point here. You have 80 hours to do the same amount of work that you previously had 120 hours to get done. It isn't perfection at work here it is efficiency so get your rollarblades on. There is no downtime built into any of the schedules. You have to perform the same amount of stuff in less time because the work didn't go anywhere. Far from expecting perfection, some folks are going to be lucky to get everything done. You don't think for one second that the attending physicians are going to cut back on the number of cases? Dream on! You are there to do work period. You are not there to take exams. AOA is meaningless unless you can get your patient care duties done.

Where I used to have 120 hours in the hospital that included study, sleep and other things mixed in with the patient care, this is not the case with the new 80-hour schedule. If you manage to get your floor work done, you move over and start something else that is unfinished on another service. If you are an intern, wave good bye to scrubbing in on surgeries because you won't have a chance to get into the OR at all. Instead of being able to scrub in after your floor duties are done, you will be shifted over to help with the floor work on another busier service. No more scrubbing in on cases after hours. You have to go home.

I would rather have the old system any day than have someone dictate the amount of time that I can spend learning my craft.

njbmd
 
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