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Medical resident work hours refers to the (often lengthy) shifts worked by medical interns and residents during their medical residency. The issue has become a political football in the United States, where federal regulations do not limit the number of hours that can be assigned during a graduate medical student's medical residency. In 2003, regulations capped the work-week at 80 hours.〔(ACGME Duty Hours Language )〕 == Long hours == Medical residencies traditionally require lengthy hours of trainees. The public and the medical education establishment recognize that such long hours are counter-productive, since sleep deprivation increases rates of medical errors and may affect learning, however the phenomenon persists in order to create a higher entry barrier and reduce costs for medical facilities. This risk was noted in a landmark study on the effects of sleep deprivation and error rate in an intensive care unit. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has limited the number of work-hours to 80 hours weekly, overnight call frequency to no more than one in three, 30-hour maximum straight shifts, and at least 10 hours off between shifts. While these limits are voluntary, adherence has been mandated for accreditation. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) built upon the recommendations of the ACGME in the December 2008 report (''Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision and Safety''. ) While keeping the ACGME's recommendations of an 80-hour work week averaged over 4 weeks, the IOM report recommends that duty hours should not exceed 16 hours per shift for interns (PGY 1). The IOM also recommended strategic napping between the hours of 10pm and 8am for shifts lasting up to 30 hours. The ACGME officially recommended strategic napping between the hours of 10pm and 8am on 30 hour shifts for residents who are post graduate year 2 and above but did not make this a requirement for program compliance. The report also suggests residents be given variable off-duty periods between shifts, based on the timing and duration of the shift, to allow residents to catch up on sleep each day and make up for chronic sleep deprivation on days off. Critics of long residency hours trace the problem to the fact that resident physicians have no alternatives to positions that are offered, meaning residents must accept all conditions of employment, including very long work hours, and that they must also, in many cases, contend with poor supervision.〔()〕 This process, they contend, reduces the competitive pressures on hospitals, resulting in low salaries and long, unsafe work hours. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Medical resident work hours」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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