Mandate an 8 Hour Workday for Doctors and Nurses
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 ...more »
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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