Training rules allow 80 hours a week. Overtime starts at 40.

Share the hours that stick. Rules allow 80-hour weeks and shifts up to 28 hours. That load is unfair to residents and dangerous for patients: errors rise when schedules crush sleep.

Open the hours recommendation

Training cap

80hr/wk

Federal overtime starts at 40 hr/wk

What the rules allow

Shifts can run 24 hours of in-house call, plus up to 4 hours for handoffs — 28 hours straight^[9]. After a 24-hour call, the rules require 14 hours free and one day in seven off, averaged over four weeks^[10]^[11].

General surgery

83.1hr/wk

Psychiatry, same survey: 49.5 hr/wk

96.9% of institutions pay the same base stipend across fields.

What residents report

Almost every hospital pays the same base across fields: 96.9% of institutions^[2]. Under the 2011 rules, 42.9% of 6,202 surveyed residents said they had falsely reported hours — history, not a current rate^[47].

Serious ICU errors

35.9% more

24-hour vs 16-hour schedule

136.0 vs 100.1 per 1,000 patient-days, P<0.001.

Patients

Short-schedule interns slept 5.8 more hours a week and showed less than half the attentional-failure rate on call nights^[68]. System-level trials of flexible versus standard caps inside the 80-hour week did not show a clear mortality change^[75]^[76]^[78].

Support a real hours limit

Share this page with a program leader. An 80-hour average used as a target is unfair to residents and dangerous for the patients in their care.

Open Recommendation 2