From: Resident duty hours in Canada: a survey and national statement
Patient safety/care | Resident safety/wellness | Cognition/ability to learn |
---|---|---|
Of all resident errors, 5%-36% are caused by fatigue [13]. | First year residents reported a higher rate of injury (exposure to contaminated bodily fluids, percutaneous injuries) when fatigued [14]. | The rate of falling asleep during lectures rose significantly with the number of extended-duration shifts worked in a given month [15]. |
For residents working more than 80 hours a week, the odds ratio of having a patient in the last week who experienced an adverse event was 1:8 [16]. | Residents were most exposed to blood-borne pathogens through needle punctures or cuts during overnight work periods [17]. | Staff physicians who were on call overnight had reduced performance in standard cognitive performance tests [18]. |
A randomized controlled trial of duty hour reduction found a significantly higher occurrence of serious medical errors with longer duty hours and less sleep [19]. | Survey findings showed that residents were 2.3 times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle crash after working an average of 32-hour shifts [20]. | One night without sleep reduced third-year residents’ performance on tests to the level of a first-year resident [21]. |
Residents made twice as many errors reading ECGs after being awake for 24 hours [22]. | Residents working shifts of more than 24 hours were at greatly increased risk of an occupational injury, a vehicle crash after work, and serious or fatal medical errors [23]. | Being awake for more than 16 consecutive hours had an effect on cognitive performance equivalent to a 0.05%-0.10% blood alcohol concentration [24–27]. |
Surgical residents who had been awake all night made 20% more errors in completing a simulated laparoscopic surgical task than those who had had a full night’s sleep [28]. | A survey of first- and second- year residents found that those who reported obtaining less than five hours of sleep per night were more likely to report increased use of alcohol and medications [29]. |  |
Residents made more technical errors in simulated laparoscopic surgical skills after being awake through the night [30]. | Â | Â |