AMA Backs Work Limit for Medical Residents

The American Medical Assn., meeting in Chicago, endorsed a new 80-hour workweek limit for medical residents to try to keep doctors-in-training from becoming so bleary-eyed that they hurt themselves or their patients.

Many doctors-in-training put in more than 100 hours a week and sometimes toil for 36 hours straight. Advocates for the 80-hour week have said that residents have fallen asleep while performing surgery or while driving home after their shifts.

Under the policy adopted by the AMA House of Delegates, the association recommended that residents not work more than 80 hours a week or more than 24 hours at a stretch, except under special circumstances. That is nearly identical to rules announced earlier this month by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.