Negative effect of limiting surgical residents to 50 hours

A new study from Swiss researchers adds to the ongoing debate over the best method for maintaining the highest educational standards for medical residency programs while also ensuring optimal patient safety. While plenty of research has indicated that exhaustion among medical professionals can lead to more mistakes, critics of rules designed to limit working hours — and encourage more routine sleep — among trainee doctors suggest that long hours are a critical to continuity of care, and quality of training. Yet, in a new analysis of 405 doctors — including 221 residents and 184 attending physicians — researchers found that a recent rule change that limits surgical residents to working 50 hours per week may have a negative impact on both the quality of training and quality of patient care.

Study: fatal medication mistakes surge in July

A new study from researchers at the University of California at San Diego and Los Angeles suggests that a sharp uptick in fatal medication mistakes in July corresponds with the entry of thousands of trainee doctors into medical residency programs across the U.S.