Current Duty Hours of Emergency Resident Physicians in Korea: Multicenter Cross-sectional Study |
Sung Phil Chung, Hyung Goo Kang, Ho Jung Kim, Ji Ho Ryu, Yoo Seok Park, Dong Woo Seo, Young Hoon Yoon, Jae Chol Yoon, Kyungwon Lee, Jang Young Lee, Kyung Woon Jeung, Gyu Chong Cho |
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea. emstar@yuhs.ac 2Department of Emergency Medicine, Hanyang University Hospital, Korea. 3Department of Emergency Medicine, Bucheon Hospital of Soonchunhyang University, Korea. 4Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Korea. 5Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Korea. 6Department of Emergency Medicine, Korea University Guro Hospital, Korea. 7Department of Emergency Medicine, Chonbuk National University Hospital, Korea. 8Department of Emergency Medicine, Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Korea. 9Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Eulji University, Korea. 10Department of Emergency Medicine, Chonnam National University Hospital, Korea. 11Department of Emergency Medicine, Hallym University Medical Center, Kangdong-Sacred Heart Hospital, Korea. |
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ABSTRACT |
PURPOSE: This study was conducted in order to determine the current status of duty hours of emergency resident physicians in Korea.
METHODS: The training committee of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine surveyed using a questionnaire on resident training status, which contained the total number of duty hours during four weeks of July (first to 28th day) according to the grades of the resident physician. The proportions of both irregular working hours and independent working hours without supervision of a board certified physician were also evaluated.
RESULTS: Responses from 80 hospitals out of 97 training hospitals were analyzed. The average number of duty hours of emergency resident physicians was 63.7+/-10.7 hours/week.
The proportion of hospitals for which the average number of duty hours exceeded 80 hours/week was 16.1%. Irregular working hours consisted of 63.9%. Residents in 15(18.7%) hospitals worked 3.7~73.5% of their duty hours without supervision of a board certified physician. The higher grade resident had fewer working hours (p<0.001). No statistical difference was observed in the rate of both irregular work and unsupervised work according to the grade.
CONCLUSION: Results of this study showed that nine(11.3%) hospitals had average duty hours above 80 hours/week. In Korea, training hospitals should prepare to minimize the impact of duty hour restriction in the near future, as well as to improve training quality. |
Key words:
Training, Workloads, Hospital emergency service |
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