Regardless of this point of view, it is worth noting that the 80-hour work week was instituted due to demands by the
public, not residents and interns. In case anyone has forgotten why New York instituted its 80-hour work week in 1989:
http://www.medicalalumni.org/bulletin/fall_2003/lead2.html
"The effort to reform resident working hours has its roots in the state of New York, which implemented an 80-hour-per-week limit in 1989. The state law—the first and only one of its kind—was prompted by the death of an 18-year-old girl who was initially hospitalized with flu symptoms. Her family claimed that negligent residents, working without enough sleep, prescribed improper medication. A grand jury investigation found no criminal fault on the part of the doctors, but the panel expressed concerns about resident working hours and supervision.
Contending that resident working hours were unsafe for patients and inhumane for doctors, advocates for reform lobbied for nationwide limits. The effort gained momentum with the formation of the Committee of Interns and Residents, a union of 11,000 medical residents, and the support of the American Medical Student Association, a national organization representing over 30,000 physicians in training. In 2001, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen joined the fight and petitioned the federal government to impose restrictions on resident work hours. In 2002, the ACGME voted to approve the New York regulations and promised to impose sanctions on programs that failed to comply.
Citing sleep deprivation studies, advocates for work hour limits have long argued that exhausted residents are more likely to make medical mistakes that could endanger the lives of their patients. An informal survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1988 found that six out of seven surgical residents had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving to and from work. Researchers at Wayne State University surveyed 700 emergency medicine residents about their driving experiences, and found that 17 percent had been involved in crashes. A study in the journal Nature determined that residents who had been awake for 24 hours had the hand-eye coordination of someone with a blood alcohol level of .10 (above the legal limit for driving in most states)."
I don't mind being told how "lazy" residents and students have become since we "only" do 80-hours a week. I do mind when they portray it as some kind of conspiracy, iniated by trainees, to get out of doing work.