Saturday I had the day off. Carrie made a brunch of pancakes, bacon, herbed scrambled eggs, juice, and gourmet coffee. Oh, yeah! Then we finished the day with more coffee, at our friendly neighborhood Starbucks.

In this day, residents in the US get (an average of) one day off every week. I count this a blessing, since such guidelines did not exist when I started surgical residency. We are also limited to working only 80 hours per week, with no shift lasting longer than 30 hours. "To what," you may ask, "do these residents owe their slack working conditions?" Well, there is a vast computer network, a borg, which has assumed self-awareness, called the ACGME. The ACGME is actually part of the axis of evil. And I assure you, ACGME is NOT interested in how happy I am. ACGME could care less. It's merely about appearing to do something for patient safety, before the government makes the rules for you. No one, from the boss to the Congress, wants to look like they're doing NOTHING when something goes wrong. No, no. It has to appear as if there is some activity, there have to be hearings, deliberations, official-sounding proclamations.

It all started with Libby Zion. ACGME then decided that it would be better for residents in training to be better rested, more sharp, and less mistake-prone than their predecessors. Thus the new rules, which were effected on July 1, 2003. This story shows one way in which the "new rules" may have hurt patients more than they have helped. Is my life better now? I guess, though it always gets better after the "intern year," the first year of surgical hazing, as it were. Are patients more safe? It's hard to say. Am I asking questions and then answering them myself? Yes.

Honestly, though, I think that most of the things the hospitals and medical schools could do to alleviate resident work hours have not been done. In fact, regulations to the opposite effect have blossomed in the health system where I work. In spite of all this, though, I still think surgery is a great job that doesn't get old, and the days just fly by...