[How much to prescribe is an open question.] The absurdity of this is that a lot of times we're put in a position of saying, 'Well, I guess we'll just give them half the adult dose,' ... We're sort of flying by the seat of our pants here. |
Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. That's right, drug, |
The last thing we want to suggest is that it's O.K. to throw a medication at something without understanding the problem, ... Insomnia is a symptom, not a disorder. It's like pain. You're not going to give a patient pain medication without figuring out what's causing the pain. |
The take-home message here is that the repercussions of fatigue on residents are considerable. This is a national problem, and we shouldn't consider it solved by an 80-hour cap on hours. |
There's a risk to the resident doctors, and there's a risk to people that residents may crash into on the way home. |
There's just never been anything like this before, with so many displaced people, and they're going to be displaced for so long, |
They're dealing with challenging kids all day long, and then no one's sleeping at night, ... It's like the straw that broke the camel's back. |
We have to continue to educate doctors-in-training, and we should help them develop sleep risk-management strategies, |
We have to continue to educate doctors-in-training, and we should help them develop sleep risk-management strategies. This is particularly important since our study shows that many sleep-starved residents don't recognize that they're impaired. |