I take it back; it was 1900 fewer hours, not 1300.
We had last year a total of 14872 hrs. allotted for floor call or consults. I wasn't at the meeting this info was presented at, so it may include each year that is doing this, i.e. pgy1-3. This year, there are only 12952 hrs. The schedules for the 2's and 3's did not change. I agree it is probably spread over the 4 interns, not 1900 fewer hrs for each.
The number of "shift" changes went up by 100...
As an ortho intern, I know the work hour thing is concerning. But remember a couple of points:
1. By ACGME rules, interns cannot spend more than 3 months of their intern year doing ortho. So other than those 3 months, who cares if they limit your time?
2. At most programs (including mine) there is NO CHANGE in the total number of hours, or total nights we're on call - the time is just divided up differently. Since the 80hr work week has been in place, residents have gotten use to being "post-call". That's a wasted day. At my program, 2s and 3s essentially take Q3 call. Sure that's a lot of days of call, but its also a lot of wasted days. On my first month of ortho, I had NO post-call days. I took 13 "calls" that month which meant I stayed until 10pm. I also did 2 weeks of nights (4pm - 8am) to get the experience of being on call overnight.
In total, the hours and number of nights were the same. The only difference was more cases from having no post-call days (a bonus) and lack of continuity for having to go home after 16 hours (a down-side).
3. As mentioned, these hours only affect interns. And, at my program, we take ortho call 9 of our 12 months as interns. So, we're almost always exposed to ortho in some capacity.
To sum up, I was more worried about the changes before starting than I am now. Trust me, I've been plenty tired so far! The biggest hit to resident education came with the 80hr week - not the 16 hour intern restriction.
