Posts Tagged ‘doctors’

A small scale British study shows that doctors and doctors-in-training made 33% fewer errors when asked to work fewer than 48 hours a week in accordance with the new European Working Time Directive (EWTD) which takes full effect in August 2009. The EWTD makes law a maximum 48 hour working week (including overtime), and a minimum of four weeks paid leave per year in order to protect workers from adverse health and safety risks. It applies to all sectors of activity, both public and private. In the study, doctors’ average sleep time increased from 6.75 to 7.26 hours per day and resulted in fewer potentially life-threatening events. Read more and share your opinion.

A study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reiterates what we already know – that a looming shortage of general practitioners will contribute to a possible health crisis in the coming years as the average age of Americans increase. A poll of US medical students show that only 2% plan on becoming general practitioners due to worries about having to care for elderly patients with complicated illnesses. In addition, students complained that internal medicine required more paperwork, a greater breadth of knowledge and pay less than more lucrative specialties. “The number of older adults in the United States is expected to nearly double between the years 2005 and 2030, and one planning model predicts that the United States will have 200,000 too few physicians by 2020,” they wrote. Full story.