Challenges Surgeons Face with Work-Hour Reforms - Impact on Healthcare Efficiency & Patient Safety | Ideal for Medical Professionals & Hospital Administrators

This book’s title suggests it covers a pretty narrow topic. The authors actually do a great job explaining why surgeons are concerned about a rule on work hour limitations in residency training. But the depth and implications of the research they describe go well beyond surgery, beyond medical training, challenging readers to consider the nature of professionalism in a complex health care system and even in other, non-medical professions. How do we sustain what has been best about health care in which deep commitment to putting patient needs first, inculcated by what the authors call a “fatigue culture,” conflicts with growing attention to clinician wellbeing as an essential foundation for service? Can we organize training and care to be more humane for trainees and clinicians without losing the deep and granular knowledge of patients, the “things we know but cannot tell,” deep ownership of patient needs gained through sustained continuity of care. American health care is the most expensive in the world, yet gets results worse than many other industrialized nations. Anyone interested in gaining a deep understanding of the challenges of retaining professionalism in health care while improving quality, cost, outcomes and clinician sustainability should read this book. It won’t give you final answers, but will provide a nuanced, deep understanding of why fixing education and training of health care professionals in America is both so hard, and so essential.