Abstract
Hypothesis: Surgical faculty and residents have significantly different attitudes regarding work hour restrictions. Setting: All general surgery residencies approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Participants: All voluntarily participating surgical faculty and residents. Main Outcome Measures: Current hours worked, days off per month, and attitudes and opinions regarding the current surgical-training environment. Methods: A 17-question survey instrument was mailed to the program directors of all ACGME-approved surgical-training programs in the United States. They were requested to distribute the survey to all faculty and residents for completion and to return the forms for analysis. Results: Responses (N = 1653) were received from 46% of surgical-training programs. A significant difference was noted between faculty and resident responses in most categories. Most residents (87%) reported more than 80 duty hours per week, whereas 45% reported working more than 100 hours per week. Only 30% of residents reported an average of 1 day per week free of clinical activities. Although a minority of residents (43%) felt that their workload was excessive, 57% felt that their cognitive abilities had been impaired by fatigue. A significant number of residents (64%) and faculty (39%) believe that duty hour restrictions should be adopted. A minority of residents (20%) and faculty (47%) believe that the duration of residency training should be increased to compensate for duty hour restrictions. One quarter of residents regret choosing a career in surgery. Conclusions: Current duty hours for most surgical residents exceed the proposed ACGME limits. Although most residents support duty hour limits; surgical faculty are less supportive. Significant alterations in the current design and structure of surgical-training programs will be required to meet the ACGME guidelines.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 663-671 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Archives of Surgery |
Volume | 138 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |