Hospitals sure are dangerous places, aren't they? It's bad enough that residents have to work such long hours and that raises the risk of errors being made from fatigue, but the thought of being sick in the hospital, already weak, and then being exposed to a sick doctor? Scary.

Resident physicians are spread so thinly among hospitals that it's virtually impossible to find someone to work for you.  Training programs do this because residents are very cheap labor--they are actually not paid by the hospital but primarily by medicare funds.  It's virtual slavery, but only for 80 hours per week.

its not just drs but also nurses assistive staff ect. i worked at a state psy hospital that only permited sceduled use of sick leave. a hopital is a very good place to get sick.

It is a crime that they will not cut the residents work hours. 80 hrs a week is a recipe for disaster. Always has been, always will be. I know, I am a Rn in a large teaching hospital in PA. I am sick of hearing about the right of passage from older doctors to the new doctors. Just because you had to do it doesnt mean it's right. I never minded helping these residents out when they stumble at first, we all went through it. But that is my license on the line also. Hopefully this will change before my daughter starts med school in 2 yrs.    

So which one of the staff gave me the infection?

What profession is excluded from going to work sick ? I should be getting ready for work this moment
I don't feel good . Big deal , I've got to go to work anyway . See you out on the highway , I'm a truck driver .

Try being a childcare provider.....always subject to sickness by the children, and there are many parents out there who HAVE to go to work, so bring their kids sick....thankfully I don't get sick often, only once a year or so, but then have ME take a day or two off....impossible. Unless I'm VERY sick, I work...if I don't, 8 sets of parents are out of work.

THIS is called a propaganda article. The agenda: get people on board with the mandating of health care workers to get the flu shot.

Angle: tell us our doctors work while they are sick and imply they will get us sick.

solution of agenda:get public approval of mandatory flu vaccine.

No mention if the shot would work or why doctors are actually sick or if it's even influenza

This is how the media works for larger industry interests. You don't even know the interests are talking to you. It's sly and despicable. This article has nothing to do with doctors working sick. It's about getting them to get the flu shot. Your tax dollars at work on a pseudo scientific study

This message brought to you by your local vaccine dealer and paid for by AAP, CDC and PHARMA.

The poor kids. No wonder hardly anybody wants to be a doctor anymore, it's just too insane the kind of mill you're put through. Something tells me these kinds of hoops medical students have to jump through are rooted and perpetuated by a specific kind of experienced doctor - the kind we've all seen acting like a 2 year old, throwing a tantrum when the overworked nurse hands him the clipboard the wrong way, or makes coffee that just isn't up to his standard...

"Misplaced dedication and fear of letting other doctors down are among reasons the researchers cited as possible explanations."

Very funny if the researchers really believe this. The "Student Doctors" are afraid of getting kicked out of the program and harrassed by the other residents. Did you notice that through the graciousness of the compassionate directors of these programs that students are now limited to a measly 80 hours per week. Come on, give me a break. If you're working 80 hours/week and one person calls in sick, you're toast and you get angry if someone calls in sick. What do you expect?

Plus, now that most hospitals have "hospitalists", this whole idea of torturing student doctors for several years of training to make sure they can take it in the long run is no longer applicable. This only ruins student doctors' lives, especially women, since this 8 plus years of 80 hours/week of work usually takes place in their late 20's.

It's no wonder many Americans are no longer interested in going to medical school. 70% of our general surgeon students are now foreign graduates. If a person works as hard as a student doctor, but in a bank, they get rich and retire to a life of leisure. No weekends of work, no calls at night, lots of long vacations, lots of extra holidays off.

Medicine used to be a noble profession. Now insurance companies call the shots and most doctors are just pawns of the hospitals they work for, I'm sorry to say.

What is scary is what the lack of care is due to this? Can a doctor really think on his toes sick?

Yep, the medical schools and residency programs really do treat the "baby Docs" badly. 80 hour weeks, made to sleep at the hospital without any privacy or quiet. Then everyone wonders why they act like morons without many social skills.

It is a shame that flu shots are not mandatory for all health care workers. Not only can one sick workers spread the flu to hundreds but many of these being exposed are the most vulnerable in the first place due to age, other conditions, etc.

As a newly graduated "real doctor" (just finished residency and fellowship a few months ago), I'd just like to say thanks for those who left supportive comments for us and understand what we go through. I was once severely sick for at least two months. Everyone knew I was ill, but I worked because I was afraid to ask for time off. A patient's family member finally complained to the hospital on my behalf that I was being forced to work 30+ hr shifts obviously ill. With that complaint, I was sent home for a week a of rest. I didn't ask...it was assigned to me. However, I was subjected to ridicule, extra nights of call in the schedule when I returned and other poor treatment. Professional letters, letters of recommendation and evaluations for the next two years included the fact that I was once ill and "took"a week off. As a result of that episode now almost 4 years ago, I still have resultant health problems that probably would have been avoided if I sought medical attention earlier.

To Rural Washington...70% of general surgery residents are not foreigners, at least not at the programs where I did medical school, general surgery residency and fellowship. Where did you get that number? Just curious...

Not even sure how to respond to this article. Being a physician and especially a surgeon is a very demanding career. In the 30 years since I graduated from medical school I think I have been sick enough to "call off work" possibly 5 times. I remember two episodes for sure and the other 3 are included just in case I can't remember a few over 30 years. Of course, this is not count the time taken off for shoulder surgery, but then I returned to work after 10 days off. Please don't take this as bragging, it is just that calling off work for runny nose, headache, sniffles, GI upset, or other minor maladies which many people consider sickness and illness is an impossibility in the healthcare field. The ability to call off work just because I don't feel well and disrupt the lives of patients, colleagues, other staff members, operating room schedules and possibly delay urgently needed procedures is not even on the radar screen.

Lets see........you're boss complains when you call in sick

(pick a job....any job) and then wonders why you're working

while sick.  

File under a no win scenario.

Funny isn't , how the sheep (You & Me) are expected to keep the big ball rolling regardless of physical or mental illness, having really bad stretches etc...yet the fatsos up top have no problem taking 4 day weekends every week for 50-100 times our pay.

Of course, they have all the responsibilities though right? i mean if a decision they make turns out to be a bad one, they get fired...don't they?

How does that Beatles song go again?

Medical residents are treated like dogs, and are pressured greatly to not take time off. They have a review system that reports nationally. It's supposed to keep their actual hours down and be anonymous. Of course if you are honest and say you have worked over 80 hours, chances are very good your program will run a witch hunt to find out who the anonymous person was and then punish them. Residency is supposed to be educational, but in most cases it's more service-oriented. They just lie to the students until they are in.

THis is due to fear of retaliation by Senior residents ( like pimping, giving them hard time) if they have to cover for them esp if need to cover for lower year residents. Also fear of getting a bad grade for the rotation. There are rules but often not get enforced due to also " fear of getting singled out among peers ...etc." Medical Residency is like a extended military boot camp. but ultimately the issue is that medical residents get paid 40K a year or so while they are being owe upward for 200K to 450K student loans so " there is also a fear of being out of jobs or gettiang laid off or getting fired by attendings" Another issue is that typically some hospitals only have 3-4 residents a year, for example Family medicine residency, this translats into 1-2 residents overseeing a entire inpatient floors covering more then 20 patients sometimes, which translates into LOW quality care due to just having high number of pt. they have to " write up every day." They learn how to " CUT CORNERS and SURVIVE The training" years more then care about actual CARE OF Patients. what they want to do is finish nad GET OUT of the hopsital and make enough money to pay off the LOANS.

so you see where this thing is coming from. They are being taught " KEEP your mouth shut" Also even though there are rules enforced from accredation committes, they are not followed. HOspitals abuse these rules often IMPLICITLY. hide them often from prying eyes. keep it HUSH and cover things up. because they dont want trouble seen by patients which lowers hospitals quality image. SO why Residents sick as dog still decideds to show up? above reasons are why. Hosipital residents are not paid by hospitals itself. they are paid for by state from TAX money. this is why Medical residents often are not care much about patients welfare( although not shown obvious way). they are under-paid over-worked and get sick always and due to fear of intimadation and Ego trips and pimping set into a entire training system, they all haveto bite the bullet. Its sad yes but truth. EVEN college graduates get paid more then medical residents. some medical residents get paid 35K a year! so why do they want to work any harder? the answer is NO, the answer is JUST GET BY FINISH THE YEARS FAST then comes the patient care. they learn to how to survive and getby more then the true care. THIS IS A HUGE ISSUE IN US residency. medical system deliberatly hire less residents, despite shortage of doctors to keep the inflation low and keep the doctors demand high.

This article doesn't surprise me, nor do I think it's propaganda for getting a flu shot.

It's bad enough that doctors come in to work sick, but the sad truth is that these extensively trained, intelligent, high wage earners, continuously need to be reminded to practice hygiene and wash their hands!!

You doctors, have mrsa on us and please wash your hands!

I work in an ER as a nurse. We have all done it. We have all come in ill or stayed the entire 12 hr shift ill. Why? because I don't think you all realize just how short staffed hospitals are. It isn't easy finding coverage to fill nurse or doctor spots. If you're the nurse on duty, about ready to end your shift, and a sick call comes in. Guess what! YOU get the luck of staying until they can find coverage. And that means your pretty much guaranteed to stay!

I have had to work 18 plus hour shifts to cover hours open by sick co-workers because they can't find enough nurses to fill all the slots. And often this has been on a stretch of my working 4-5 days straight, 12 hr plus days.

Having your nurse or doctor working while under the weather isn't really the scary part..the scary part is how TIRED they are. Some residents can barely see straight from fatigue.

It's a nerf world,... no risk is the way to go. Next time you need trauma surgery and your surgeon is out with a "bug" thank your lucky stars that even though you may bleed out, you didn't pick up the flu.

PROPAGANDA for the vaccine companies benefit. Wash your hands and use alcohol hand sanitizer. You are much more at risk from the door knob other patients have touched than the physician. Forced medical interventions without true consent is nothing to minimize. Encouraging time off when ill is a better approach.

Residency is demanding for good reason, there is no way that a doctor can be adequately trained in a surgical field working less than 60 hrs a week over 5 years. Even at 80 hours a week both General Surgery and OB/GYN have considered adding additional years to the training program. If the hours are decreased any further there will certainly be years added to the training programs and you may even see these specialties drop out of the ACGME so they do not have to abide by the rules.

Calling off sick for minor complaints that others view as serious is at the heart of this article. Doctors do not see a common cold, diarrhea, or a myriad of other common problems as legitimate reasons to stay home, because they are not. We do not have someone to call up and cover when you are sick. Just think how angry you are when your appointment is cancelled by your doctor, or when your doctor does not come see you in the hospital. Imagine how more enraged you would be if you were told your doctor was not in because of a cold, people would stop coming to see that doctor in short order. Like it or not physicians are still held to a higher standard as should be the case.

This journal article is nothing more than attempting to build the case to change the work hours. There is absolutely no data to show that decreasing hours worked improves patient safety. There is also no evidence to show that increasing hours worked decreases patient safety. The only article suggesting either of these is extremely flawed and anyone with any research background would have rejected it from publication had it not been for the backing of the IOM and ACGME etc. The 80 hour work week has been in effect in New York longer than any other state and they still have not been able to show any improvement in patient safety. If anything decreasing work hours will result in physicians that are less competant and might increase errors over the long term, but that does not get anyone votes so it will not be discussed.

Doctors can't call in sick. We have responsibilities. People depend on us.