I agreeto Idea Mandate an 8 Hour Workday for Doctors and Nurses
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Mandate an 8 Hour Workday for Doctors and Nurses

Why Is This Idea Important?: The 12 hour shift in hospitals is a major public health hazard. Doctors and Nurses should work no longer than 8 hours every 24 hours.

One of the major, but little mentioned problems with our healthcare system is the widespread practice of having 12 hour shifts for Nurses. Doctors can put in much longer hours. Does this make any sense to anyone? Is it any surprise that health-endangering... or life-ending mistakes are made by tired, overworked Doctors and Nurses?

The 12 hour shift in hospitals is a major public health hazard. Doctors and Nurses should work no longer than 8 hours every 24 hours.

One of the major reasons for the 'Nursing Shortage' is that Nurses get burned out in the current system. I would bet that an 8 hour shift would go a long way to eliminating the 'Shortage'.

I would also expect that malpractice insurance rates would go down as fewer mistakes were made - this should make healthcare less expensive.

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Submitted by quality 3 years ago

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Comments (8)

  1. mkfair

    The government needs to stay out of private industry. Should we mention GM? Chrysler?

    3 years ago
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  2. tmorgan

    I'm a Nurse and I think this is ridiculous. I can think of dozens of real issues that contribute to health care problems more than this. It won't make any change in the "shortage" as total hours remain the same. Evidence will not show that this contributes to mistakes.

    Focusing on this would be a silly waste of time.

    3 years ago
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  3. lindatift

    As in most cases it is only when government gets involved that companies do what is right for the worker. As with the auto companies the workers working conditions did not get better because the company was willing to look at safety issues and do what was best to insure a safe work place for the worker. It took an act of congress to ensure workers were protected against harmful chemicals and various other harmful work related issues.

    3 years ago
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  4. quality

    I think the common sense and logic of the idea speaks for itself. The work itself is highly responsible (life & death) and can be physically and emotionally draining.

    Would you feel confident about a Doctor who is on his 16th hour operating on you? Or would you rather have one who has worked less than 8?

    The 12 hour shift exists primarily to save hospitals the expense and trouble of hiring more people. I am certain that more people would stay with Nursing if they had a humane and reasonable work day.

    3 years ago
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  5. thomandaud

    the problem with mistakes being made in hospitals is the overwork, not the number of hours worked. each nurse has too many patients to take care of at one time, and too many bits of mandated paperwork that have to be completed before there shift is up. the strain is immense and it will be there through the first eight and the last four hours equally. we need more nurses and doctors, period.

    if you're not a nurse or a doctor, you don't know. the more mandates you put on health care workers, the fewer of them you will have. just try to find a nurse in nyc to fill an eight hour shift. nurses prefer twelve hours by far because it helps them organize their lives.

    the reason for the lack of nurses is that nursing is difficult and thankless job.

    3 years ago
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  6. chloe_658

    I agree. I work as a medical transciptionist and type up 100s of reports from different physicians and there are times the physicians have actually fallen asleep on the phone while dictating. You listen to them snore for a good amount of time and then they wake up and don't know where they left off, so some of their reports don't make sense. I don't understand why physicians are made to work such long hours, especially since they are physically taking care of patients and doing surgical procedures, even if it is only to stitch a laceration up.

    3 years ago
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  7. ddunn

    I thought the point of longer shifts was to provide an extended continuity of care. Two shifts vs. three = one less opportunity for something critical to fall between the cracks.

    3 years ago
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  8. lindatift

    Or more tired nurses that miss critical information due to being over worked. Although I can understand a nurse wanting the twelve hour shift. This means they have one less day a week that they must travel to work,buy a lunch and in the long run means more money in their pockets.

    3 years ago
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