Many of you listening are probably used to an 8-10-hour work day.

That's standard for lots of Americans.

You're also probably aware that doctors tend to work longer shifts, especially during

residency, that training period that comes right after medical school and which can last

up to seven years.

Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours.

Your interns, crunch, nobody's bottom up the surgical food chain.

You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop and don't complain.

48 hours might be a slight exaggeration, but until work hour reforms were passed in 2003,

it really was normal for residents to have 36 hour shifts.

The reforms were tightened again in 2011 and capped work weeks at 80 hours.

They also capped shift length based on seniority.

Interns, the lowest level residents couldn't work longer than 16 hours.

But upper level residents could still work up to 24 hours straight, with up to 4 additional

hours for transitions in care.

So even with those restrictions, some residents could still work 28 hours in a row, as

part of their 80 hours each week.

Now, it's not hard to imagine that those crazy long shifts could have downsides.

Not just for sleep deprived doctors, but for patients.

The other industries, work shifts of that duration are associated with fatigue and drop-offs

in performance.

And so we did a study that looked at a schedule where some residents worked as long as 36 hours

...