Sunday, February 3, 2013

physician, heal thyself

I frequently read certain blogs that i don't have on my OWN list (which is long already); PrincipleIntoPractice is one of them.  Her recent post reminded me of something that has always bothered me about the medical profession.

THE HOURS THESE PEOPLE WORK are just outrageous!  How do they expect people to do good work when they don't have time to sleep enough or eat right ... or go to the bathroom for chrise-sake?  Hell, if airlines made their pilots do this, the uproar of protest would echo from the welkin!

Some brave soul on the inside is going to HAVE to start a movement to remedy this situation.  Making it a virtue to work 36-hour days is not rational.  No wonder fatal mistakes by hospitals and doctors are so numerous.

I used the quote, "Physician, heal thyself" as my title today, but it should have been "heal thy profession."

6 comments:

  1. Mistakes happen every minute of every day because of the way medical training is organised.

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    1. ooh, you should do a blog post on that....

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  2. You are so right on this. I think the purpose of medical resident hazing is to deliberately produce insensitive, uncaring "professionals". The system needs to be changed.

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    1. i have the suspicion that it's like the prolonged first day as a Marine Corps recruit -- it's the brainwashing technique which is designed to make them an exclusive and adhesive club.

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  3. "Hell, if airlines made their pilots do this, the uproar of protest would echo from the welkin!"

    "More than 50 per cent of pilots have been in control of an aircraft after being awake for 23 hours according to an academic study. A fifth said they were flying 28 hours after getting up.
    Nearly eight per cent of the pilots who participated in the study admitted they had been involved in a road accident driving home at the end of their shift, Dr Bennett said.
    On pilot who took part in the study said he had “nodded off” over the Isle of Wight on his approach to Gatwick.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/9735973/Airline-pilots-falling-asleep-in-cockpit-because-of-fatigue.html

    Kind regards Eddie

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    1. whoa -- i thought they'd made some rather strict rules about this.... next time i'm on a very long flight, i'll probably feel less confident!

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