Medical students questioning risk involved in duty hour trials

The American Medical Students Association (AMSA) and the watchdog group Public Citizen are speaking out against two trials which are meant to study the effects of resident duty hour restrictions. The iCOMPARE and FIRST studies are trying to determine if rates of death and serious complications are higher at hospitals where residents are required to work shifts longer than the ACGME-mandated 16 hours. For the trials, the ACGME allowed some residents to work more than 16 hours—some as many as 28 hours.

AMSA and Public Citizen argue that these trials put patients and residents at greater risk, and patients were not informed if a resident was participating in the study and potentially working a 28-hour shift.

Thomas Nasca, MD, CEO of ACGME said other duty hour restrictions remained in place during the trials to act as safeguards.

Source: MedPage Today