BACKGROUND

Medical residents in hospitals are often required to be on duty for long hours. In 2003, the organization overseeing graduate medical education adopted common program requirements to restrict resident workweeks, including limits to an average of 80 hours over 4 weeks and the longest consecutive period of work to 30 hours in order to protect patients and residents from unsafe conditions resulting from excessive fatigue. An IOM committee was formed to examine resident hours, work schedules and patient safety and draft a report and recommendations based on their findings. The committee’s report, entitled Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and Safety, examines how those requirements were implemented and their impact on safety, education, and the training institutions. The committee also conducted an in-depth review of the evidence on sleep and human performance. Based on the evidence, the committee recommends ways to improve conditions for patient safety and resident safety as well as the learning environment during residency.

PUBLIC BRIEFING

The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies will hold a public release of the report by the Committee on Optimizing Graduate Medical Trainee (Resident) Hours and Work Schedules to Improve Patient Safety on December 2, 2008 at the National Press Club at 10am EST.  

DETAILS:

Date:                Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 10am EST

Location:          National Press Club

529 14th St., NW, Holeman Lounge

Washington, DC 20045

For directions: http://www.press.org/directions.cfm

In attendance: Report committee members participating in the public briefing include:

MICHAEL M. E. JOHNS (committee chair), Chancellor, Emory University

DAVID DINGES, Professor and Chief, Division of Sleep and Chronobiology; Director, Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

BRIAN LINDBERG, Executive Director, Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care

DANIEL MUNOZ, Fellow, Division of Cardiology, The Johns Hopkins University Hospital

TO REGISTER

Please click here.

TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO WEBCAST

If you are unable to attend the public release, but still want to listen to the audio webcast, please go to our homepage at www.nationalacademies.org on December 2. You will be able to LISTEN to the webcast and submit questions using an email form.