Duty Hours for Resident Physicians — Tough Choices for Teaching Hospitals

Those involved in graduate medical education have long struggled with competing priorities that surround the issue of residents' work hours: providing each trainee with an adequate amount of clinical experience; protecting time for teaching conferences and self-study; preserving sufficient continuity of patient care; and avoiding excessive fatigue. The recent decision by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to implement new limits on residents' work hours has abruptly intensified that struggle. When fully implemented in July 2003, these “common duty hour standards”1 will, for the first time, apply a core set of requirements for work hours to all specialties. . . .