In July 2003, the organization that accredits medical residency programs responded to growing pressure by placing caps on the number of hours residents were allowed to work. For years, patient advocacy groups had been saying that after working 30 hours straight or 110 hours in a week, residents might not be in peak condition for providing medical care. Residency programs in surgery are known for being particularly grueling; researchers looked at whether surgery residents at the University of California–Irvine were less likely to burn out now that they're supposed to work only 80 to 88 hours a week.

What the researchers wanted to know: Is surgery resident burnout less common now than it was before work hours were restricted?

What they did: The 37 surgery residents and 27 faculty members in U.C.–Irvine's surgery department were asked to fill out an anonymous online survey and a weeklong registry of how they spent their time. They did this twice—one week before the deadlines were implemented and six months later. The survey measured burnout with standardized questions that get at how emotionally exhausted people are, their sense of accomplishment, and their feelings of depersonalization.

What they found: Burnout didn't change significantly after the reduction in work hours. Both before and after the change, about half the residents or more scored high on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; only a few had low levels of personal accomplishment. Work hours did go down, the point of the new rules; before the restrictions kicked in, residents worked an average of 100.7 hours a week. Six months later, they worked an average of 82.6 hours a week.

What the study means to you: Residents provide a lot of the care at academic medical centers. Their state of mind may, therefore, interest patients.

Caveats: Not everyone is happy about the shorter work hours, by a long shot. Many residents and older doctors think that education suffers when residents have to go home instead of sticking around to do more surgery and see unusual cases. Also, some say that the decrease in residents' work hours means more work for faculty.

Find out more: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has information on the rules about resident duty hours. The American Medical Student Association has been very critical of residents' long work hours.

Read the article: Gelfand, D.V., et al. "Effect of the 80-Hour Workweek on Resident Burnout." Archives of Surgery. September 2004, Vol. 139, pp. 933-940.

Abstract online: http://archsurg.ama-assn.org