The road to becoming a doctor is a long one. After undergraduate studies and medical school, a prospective doctor must complete a residency, or a sort of hands-on training at a hospital for a couple of years before they are worth their salt. A residency includes a salary of about $35,000 a year, and demands long hours at a hospital. I interviewed Sachin Gupta, a second year resident, whose opinions about his residency corroborate that residents work very long hours, get little rest, and definitely have to have a passion for what they do to keep at it. First, let’s delve into the controversy: residents are often subjected to long work hours where they are constantly on-call always moving around in the hospital. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) now limits the work week to no more than 80 hours. Still, this is a lot of work; especially for people who need to be coherent to make sound decisions for the well-being of patients. Many studies have proven that sleep deprivation is the leading cause of medical errors. Doctors cannot afford to make careless mistakes! Dr. Gupta talks about the long 28 hour shifts he has at the hospital where he will get about 4 hours of sleep; but still has to balance family.
In the journal for the Public Library of Science (PloS), a study was conducted where first year medical residents were questioned about their sleep and work schedule. The results showed that “when residents reported working five marathon shifts in a single month, their risk of making a fatigue-related mistake that harmed a patient increased by 700%” (USA Today 12/11/2006). Let’s be clear: I am not arguing that residents are a danger to patients. I am presenting the reality that being a medical resident is grueling work. Dr. Gupta discussed the easiest thing about being a resident: “always having back-up [and] being able to talk to your attending if you have any questions.” His answer suggests that he is being polite; but also suggests that as a resident, he will continuously need questions answered and there is always something new to learn. Residents are always learning and always have access to help. Dr. Gupta is passionate about medicine; he admits that he always wanted to be a doctor.
In the journal for the Public Library of Science (PloS), a study was conducted where first year medical residents were questioned about their sleep and work schedule. The results showed that “when residents reported working five marathon shifts in a single month, their risk of making a fatigue-related mistake that harmed a patient increased by 700%” (USA Today 12/11/2006). Let’s be clear: I am not arguing that residents are a danger to patients. I am presenting the reality that being a medical resident is grueling work. Dr. Gupta discussed the easiest thing about being a resident: “always having back-up [and] being able to talk to your attending if you have any questions.” His answer suggests that he is being polite; but also suggests that as a resident, he will continuously need questions answered and there is always something new to learn. Residents are always learning and always have access to help. Dr. Gupta is passionate about medicine; he admits that he always wanted to be a doctor.
Residents may or may not get their 4 hours of sleep during their 28 hour shift. Another resident, Himabindu Manneri is in her third year and shares the same opinion when it comes to the work load and lack of sleep. Dr. Manneri states she gets an average of “2-4 hours of sleep” and insists that the hardest thing about being a resident is the time away from her family. One can deduce that with the residents’ salary, workload, and lack of sleep, one has to be passionate about medicine to endure this.
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