Truck drivers have strict limits on the number of consecutive hours they can work.
Why are medical professions regularly encouraged to work far beyond the limits of human capability in high stress situations?
Don’t give me the “patient care continuity” bullshit. A nurse covering a double 12 hr shift or a resident huffing adderall to make it through a 36 hr shift is not in the patients’ interests.
Medical training is still very elitist and rooted in old traditions. They’re not that far removed from the days of “Doctors are gentlemen and don’t need to wash their hands”. The hours worked and the types of people you need to know just to get admitted to medical school are some of the first things that need to change.
Haha, holy shit I had no idea!
Halsted soon became addicted to morphine, which he used to treat his cocaine addiction.
Wild times man…
When I worked in movies, and later in theatre, I napped every chance I got. I eventually started to carry a hammock in my kit for the movies. When I stayed at the theatre I set up my hammock on the catwalks.
Paramedics absolutely should not be working more than 12 hours shifts.
I worked 24s for many years. In 2006 I had a medication error, luckily very minor and technically was no longer an error after new set of protocols. Yet, it was an error after working more than 24hrs in a row. I forget the exact total time when the error occurred.
I stopped working more than 12hr shifts in 2017. My current job is very cushy compared to my work history. And I still squeeze in naps.
As a paramedic: There is a reason why most jurisdictions in civilised countries have by now introduced legislation to make high volume shifts over 12h illegal and all shifts over 24h illegal.
There is ample evidence that after hour 9 the chance to produce errors that hurt the patient does increase steadily and massively.
