Friday, June 4, 2010

I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Maggie Maher on Health Beat is writing about the issue of medical residents working long shifts with little or no sleep.

There are some very sobering quotes from residents explaining how they basically just lose all interest in their work and their patients when they're running on 20+ hours of no sleep. One story in particular struck me, where the physician says that after being up all night and receiving a new patient:

I wished that my new patient would die. At that moment, I cared nothing for my patient, her family, her life. Her living got in the way of my sleep. She was one more name to go on my patient list, one more life to attend to, countless hours I wouldn’t spend in bed.

Yikes. You don't want to encounter this doctor, right? (As the quote continues, "That’s the side of a doctor no patient should have to face.")

But don't you totally understand that feeling, at the same time? Not literally, since I've never been in a position where saving a person's life kept me from sleep, but I know that when I've been up for way too many hours in a row (not often, happily), I start to operate in a complete haze. Emotions are off key, responses are slow.

Heck, I hate everyone and everything in the world if I wake up too early in the morning*. Sleep is important!

But of course someone needs to cover the shifts these residents work, and there's the question of whether hospitals can afford to pay enough people to do that if they only work for shorter periods of time. Also, there seems to be an attitude of "I survived it, so you can too--now suck it up and quit whining!" among doctors past their residency experiences.

Another post addressing these questions is promised. This one was mainly about why long shifts and sleep deprivation are an issue we should think about. And I have to say, I'm pretty convinced.


*'Too early in the morning' is here defined as 'at some point in the morning.'
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