Several authors with GIM connections have had a study published online in July by the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study, entitled “Impact of Duty Hour Regulations on Medical Students’ Education: Views of Key Clinical Faculty” was written by Dr. Darcy Reed of the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Rachel Levine, Dr. Redonda Miller, Dr. Bimal Asher, Dr. Eric Bass, Ms. Tasha Rice, and Dr. Joseph Cofrancesco Jr. all of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Drs. Miller, Ashar, Bass, and Cofrancesco are members of the GIM Faculty; Ms. Rice is a GIM researcher. Dr. Levine is a faculty member in GIM at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Drs. Reed, Levine and Cofrancesco are also alumni of the GIM Fellowship program.
In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education implemented duty hour limitations for residents at U.S. residency programs to reduce the risk of adverse events resulting from sleep deprivation. Dr. Reed and her colleagues conducted a survey of teaching faculty about their views of the impact of residency duty hour regulations on medical students' educational experience on inpatient medicine rotations. They found that faculty had important concerns about the impact of duty hour regulations on medical students' education in internal medicine, with 52% of faculty reporting worsening in the overall quality of students' education.
Furthermore, faculty who spend 15 or more hours per week teaching were more likely to report worsening in students' level of responsibility on inpatient teams, ability to follow patients throughout the hospitalization, and ability to develop working relationships with residents. The study’s results suggest that medical schools need to strengthen the training of medical students within the constraints imposed by duty hour requirements.
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