Why resident duty hours regulations must address attending physicians' workload

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Graduate Medical Education
• Physician Workload

Background:

• The focus of resident duty hours regulations has been on resident well-being and patient safety.
• Attending physicians' perspectives and needs have been largely overlooked in this debate.
• Previous regulations (2003) aimed to improve resident education and patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of resident duty hours regulations on attending physicians' workload.
• To explore the correlation between increased attending physician workload and decreased teaching time.
• To highlight the broader implications of attending physician workload on resident supervision, assessment, and burnout.

Main Methods:

• Commentary discussing findings from Roshetsky et al. in Academic Medicine.
• Analysis of reported changes in attending physician clinical workload post-2003 regulations.
• Review of potential downstream effects on faculty supervision and resident education.

Main Results:

• Attending physicians reported a greater clinical workload after the implementation of 2003 resident duty hours regulations.
• Increased attending physician workload correlated with decreased time available for teaching residents.
• Potential negative consequences include reduced supervision, assessment, and increased faculty burnout.

Conclusions:

• The current resident duty hours movement must address attending physicians' workload to achieve its goals.
• Programs need creative solutions to mitigate increased attending physician workload, similar to addressing patient handoff training.
• Failure to address attending physician workload may negatively impact patient care and physician well-being.