Curie Brief
Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
News
The ACGME is proposing to cut key resident duty hour protections — and physicians aren't happy about it. A psychiatry chief resident argues that rolling back safeguards like mandatory rest between shifts threatens both resident well-being and patient safety. Decades of research back her up: exhausted doctors make more errors, and that's bad news for everyone in the hospital.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is proposing to roll back longstanding resident duty hour protections, including cutting the mandatory 8-hour rest period between shifts and reducing the 14-hour rest window after 24-hour in-house call. Dr. Chloe Nazra Lee, a psychiatry chief resident, is sounding the alarm — arguing the move puts both residents and patients at risk.
Dr. Lee traces the roots of medicine's grueling work culture back to William Halsted, the Johns Hopkins surgeon whose model of residency — unlimited hours, hospital living, no personal life — was reportedly fueled by a severe cocaine addiction. Decades of research have since confirmed what common sense suggests: sleep-deprived physicians make more errors, and exhausted doctors can directly harm patients. The 1984 death of Libby Zion, linked to an intern who had been awake for over 18 hours, became a landmark case that sparked calls for reform.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: Resident physicians are both learners and frontline caregivers. Weakening their protections doesn't just affect their health — it affects every patient they treat. Dr. Lee argues that protecting resident well-being and protecting patient safety are, ultimately, the same fight.
