Patient safety, resident well-being and continuity of care with different resident duty schedules in the intensive care unit: a randomized trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Shorter resident duty periods are increasingly mandated to improve patient safety and physician well-being. However, increases in continuity-related errors may counteract the purported benefits of reducing fatigue. We evaluated the effects of 3 resident schedules in the intensive care unit (ICU) on patient safety, resident well-being and continuity of care.

Methods

Residents in 2 university-affiliated ICUs were randomly assigned (in 2-month rotation-blocks from January to June 2009) to in-house overnight schedules of 24, 16 or 12 hours. The primary patient outcome was adverse events. The primary resident outcome was sleepiness, measured by the 7-point Stanford Sleepiness Scale. Secondary outcomes were patient deaths, preventable adverse events, and residents' phys

SUBMITTER: Parshuram CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4361104 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature