When shifts for doctors were 24 hours, there were 36% more serious medical mistakes.Residents used to work for 36 hours straight, but, while in the middle of a 36 hour shift, residents misdiagnosed a patient, Libby Zion, causing her to lose the gift of life. Later on, the law, Libby Zion Law was put in effect. This law regulates the hours residents are able to work. The residents can work 24 hour shifts, but they have an 80 hour limit each week.Doctors should not work for 24 hours because they are more likely to miss diagnose a patient, after work, they are more likely to get in a wreck, and they are more susceptible to create poor medical decisions
Doctors should not work for 24 hours because they are more susceptible to miss diagnose a patient due to lack of sleep. In the text we see that,
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Maria Konnikova, the author of The Walking dead, said that _¨And the performance of someone who has been awake for twenty-four hours straight is similar to that of someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1 per cent. In other words, “normal” amounts of sleep deprivation have us acting like we’re drunk.¨ and Laura Barge states, “ Compared to months in which no extended-duration shifts were worked, during months in which between one and four extended-duration shifts and five or more extended-duration shifts were worked, the odds ratios of reporting at least one fatigue-related significant medical error were 3.5 (95% confidence interval” When you are tired, your brain is not thinking right. Being tired can not only endanger your health, but it can also endanger your ability to think straight and create wise, thoughtful, and smart decisions. If it gets to a point where you are too tired, you can even be thinking like a drunk person which makes it extremely dangerous for the patient under your care. Do you really want a doctor who is thinking like a drunk
In a hospital patients are cared for around the clock, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Hospital RN schedules are set up on rotation shifts meaning you might have to work night or days, holidays, and/or weekends (“Job…”). In a doctor’s office, school, or health center regular business hours are normally maintained (“Job…”). If an RN works for a home health care agency then their routine patient visits are mostly scheduled during business hours. However, if a nurse is on call they may be paged and required to make a visit on any day, at any time.
Although evidence has concluded that long working hours increase the risk of fatigue, several studies have demonstrated contradictory results of the effect of working hours on fatigue and cognitive thinking. It argued that there is no difference between 12 and 8 hour shifts on nurse’s fatigue or critical thinking performance (Estabrooks et al., 2009). Supporting to this Todd et al. (1989) and Reid et al. (1993) claimed that there is no a distinction between the two shift systems in cognitive functions. However, a conducted study found that the risk of fatigue is increased at the end of 12-hour shifts, while there is no difference between the two shift systems in the critical thinking (Fields and Loveridge, 1988). Contrary, Ugrovics and Wright (1990) demonstrated that in the twelve hour-shifts the last hour is associated with an elevation of the level of fatigue and decrease the level of concentration. Furthermore, in a st...
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
...hological preparation. After a nurse is done working their regular shift being forced to work overtime can out them a greater right of medical mistake in part due to fatigue and tiredness consequently putting the patient at high risk of complications.
According to Wilson (2005), sleep deprivation can cause not only traffic accidents, but also medical conditions such as: obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabo...
When candidates are competing for an award, a job, or an honor, they often use the qualities of their character as evidence as to why they deserve it. I certainly understand and believe in the necessity of qualifications; however, I have also always believed that having a plan of what one will do with a certain honor is an integral part of deserving it. That is why this essay is not about my previous accomplishments. This essay is a declaration of my ideas to serve as a representative of Seton Hill University by making the community, state, and country a better place for all.
The article "Causes and consequences of sleep deprivation in hospitalized patients" written by Stephanie Pilkington is exploring the causes and consequences of sleep deprivation in hospitalized patients. The author provides a brilliant summary of factors that affect the level of sleep experienced by patients in hospitals and the effects of sleep deprivation on the health and the wellbeing of these individuals. The article goes on to state that for sleep-deprived patients, there were bio-cognitive consequences for their health and recovery, with particular effects on immune functioning, inflammation, parasympathetic equilibrium, carbohydrate metabolism and cognitive performance.
The authors and scientists from a different study by the U.S National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health on long and short-term sleep deprivation state directly that “in certain jobs, people face sleep restriction. Some professions such as health care… require working at night. In such fields, the effect of acute total sleep deprivation (SD) on performance is crucial” (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance). Depending on their schedule, nurses can often be susceptible to sleep deprivation and are no exception, especially if they are working long hours. The study performed research on how acute and chronic sleep deprivation can affect the brain and how it can slow down or worsen thought process and rationality throughout the day for working adults. The authors also explain that “motor function, rhythm, receptive and expressive speech, and memory ...deteriorated after one night of SD.” (Alhola and Polo-Kantola, Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance) Although everybody is affected by a lack of sleep differently, some might have the ability to handle it a lot better than others, but it is fair to say that no one can perform their jobs perfectly if their brains are being affected by sleep deprivation. This organization concludes this study by explaining that there is still much research that needs to be
Working in a fast-paced environment and being on their feet can really take a toll on a person. In addition they have to be prepared for anything to happen during their shift. A study of overworked and stressed nurses found that nurses are overworked suffered from physical sickness like type two diabetes (Stress and overworked 2006). For most nurses, their work week consists of more than sixty hours. Working that many hours can double their chances of sicknesses. When they compare the working week hours of nurses who worked the normal 21 to 40 hours with those that work more than 40 or 60 hours a week, they found that in comparison the ones who worked 40 hours or more a week increased the risk by almost 50 percent for type 2 diabetes (Stress and overwork 2006). If nurses were to work their normal work hours without mandatory overtime, then their health would improve.
First year doctors shouldn't have to work inhuman shifts because they get sleep
Many people feel like they’ll be able to overcome their tiredness but truthfully you cannot fight your sleepiness especially while you are out on the road. Others believe that once they get on the road they’ll be able to wake up but that’s not always the case. Instead of pulling over their vehicles, many people chose to continue to drive while they are tired. This can be an extremely dangerous routine to adopt. According to researchers, many of the fatal crashes showed that the drivers were not getting enough sleep and were up longer than they need to be. Drivers that pulled over and took a nap were less likely to end up in a fatal accident (OH Editorial Staff). Some drivers also said that they didn’t feel too comfortable pulling over on the side of the road to take a nap because they felt it wasn’t safe (Yee 232). This can be true in some cases but people that feel this way would have to ask, would they rather take the chance of seriously injuring themselves?
This essay will explain what junior doctors are and what their role as junior doctor are, why the junior doctors strike action is justified in the current political context and will also debate whether Jeremy Hunt the Secretary of State of health is to blame for the strike or is the British medical association to blame.
At first, people's eyes begin to feel dry and they have trouble concentrating, causing their eyesight to weaken. Their reaction time slows down as well as their thinking process and judgment. These effects are minor but as one’s body weakens, their immune system is affected as well. This may cause their body to catch an illness or disease. Afterwards, their body becomes very weak and it will take a while before it can heal properly. In addition, their heart gets tired and cannot perform its job properly, so prolonged sleep deprivation also leads to risk of heart diseases. Not only does sleep loss make people feel tired, but it is also harmful to their body by increasing the risk of health problems (“Sleep Deprivation: What Are the Physical Effects” , Griffin R. Morgan, Mann Jeff, Peri Camille, Pietrengeelo
Long working hours continue to be one of the largest health concerns in the world. Currently, the world population has become so busy due to the pressure from harsh economic conditions. People are therefore spending long working hours in the workplace, which is an aspect that has negative impact on their health conditions. Statistics from Working Condition Survey indicates that approximately 30% of workers residing in European Union believe that their health is at risk due to the hours they spent in the workplace (Gurung, 2010:16)
When hospitals do not have enough staff to care for patients, nurses are required to work overtime and because of that, 50% of nurses quit their job (Martin). This is not healthy for nurses and not safe for patients because if nurses are constantly working overtime, they can become tired and dissatisfied with their job. Moreover, when nurses are dissatisfied with their job because of always working overtime, it lead nurses to quit their job which can become a problem for hospitals because it is hard to keep training new nurses all the time. This can cost money and effort. In addition, it will affect patients because it nurses are tired from working overtime, quality of care for patients can suffer. According to Sung-Heui Bae, author of “Nursing Overtime: Why, How Much, and Under What Working Conditions?”, When a nurse works for over 12 hours or more than 60 hours a week, nurses are more prone to making medical errors which can compromise a patient’s safety (Bae). Like what Fackelmann says, “Overworked nurse may not get to a patient quickly enough to catch a subtle sign of a potentially deadly complication”. This can be one of the reason of 20,000 death of patients each year because of overworked nurses