As physicians or physicians in training, a challenging work-life is expected. Although in medicine, it is not only the type of work that is infamously known to society as brutal, it is the amount of work that is demanded of their careers. More people that are not in the medical field are becoming aware of the cruel and inequitable circumstances their healthcare workers must live with. Doctors undergo inhumane challenges to be physicians, including unlawful residency training hours and stressful exposure and expectations in the work environment without much support; however, their demanding training and career concern people’s lives and shouldn’t be easy. 

      Medical residents work under labor conditions that violate workers’ and humans’ rights.  Despite known stresses and situations of people that have others’ lives in their hands, the balance of lives they take care of versus their own livelihood is off. According to KevinMD.com, “Physicians-in-training are now legally forced to work 28-hour shifts and 80-hour work weeks” (Wible). Full time employment ranges from 30-40 hours a week, and doctors in training are expected to work double the amount of a full-time worker and to work overnight for each shift. Not only does this raise concern to the legality of their conditions, it questions their ability to perform their best in a position that requires them to be the most alert and attentive. Attorney Ryan Park compares a training doctor’s work life to other occupations and mentions how harmful it is for both physician and patient, saying, “Overall, residents typically work more than twice as many hours annually as their peers in other white-collar professions, such as attorneys in corporate law firms—a grueling schedule that potentially puts both caregivers and patients at risk” (Park, “Why So Many Young Doctors”). Despite residents’ current situation, the past of medical graduates’ work hours is even worse. Before the voluntary adoption of duty hour reforms, U.S. medical residents did not have limits for their work hours, where 36 and 48-hour shifts and 100-120-hour workweeks were routine (Park, “Medical Residents”). Although legislation has made progress in addressing the work violations and unhealthy requirements of physician-trainees, future doctors are still expected to take a work life balance that a physician would not recommend nor approve of. The heartless hypocrisy that is required for healthcare workers continue to detriment themselves and their patients. 

       The stressful environment and work demands cause physicians’ severe emotional distress. Beyond hours and expectations, a lack of compassion and awareness of doctors’ struggles have exacerbated the numbers of caretakers in need of help. Studies on physician’s mental health have shown concerning statistics, “One doctor commits suicide in the U.S. every day — the highest suicide rate of any profession. And the number of doctor suicides — 28 to 40 per 100,000 — is more than twice that of the general population, new research shows. The rate in the general population is 12.3 per 100,000” (Anderson). As comparisons are being made of the written and unwritten circumstances doctors face compared to people in other professions, it is clear they are forced to suffer more than the average American worker. Medical practitioners appear to suffer from depression more than most people in other careers. Recent meta-analyses of global studies suggest about 27% medical students, 29% in registrars, and up to 60% of practicing doctors have depression (Outhoff S11-S14). A life lost, whether the person was a physician or not, is still a life lost and added number to a saddening statistic. What further emphasizes the need to improve these challenges for healthcare workers, is that other lives count on them and more people die with less health experts around. Even with an impending physician shortage in America, there exists a shortage of support and compassion for these “physicians at risk.” Author K. Outhoff elaborates on the many factors and inequities of healthcare workers that contribute to their distress and lack of support:  

       Doctors are exposed to more work-related stressors than many other professional groups, and are therefore vulnerable to depression. These include long hours, extensive workloads, the growing intensity and complexity of the job, relentless contact with patient ill health and emergencies, high levels of responsibility, rapid change within healthcare, institutional constraints such as discrimination and intimidation, lack of autonomy, low levels of support, loss of job satisfaction, low morale and the inability to attend to their personal lives. (S11-S14)   

       For ones who can acknowledge their needs, their lies apprehension to seek the very help they would offer and allow to their patients. Studies and surveys have suggested that the overbearing stigma behind mental health has affected doctors and created a reluctance to take care of themselves due to their profession, “Nearly 40% of physicians (2325 of 5829) reported that they would be reluctant to seek formal medical care for treatment of a mental health condition because of concerns about repercussions to their medical licensure” (Dyrbye et al. 1486-1493). This extends the ironic injustice of how physicians are overlooked as patients and humans, and that they fear advocating for themselves due to barriers and conditions that have brought them to a state of needed care in the first place.  

       On the other hand, practitioners work in a field that deals with peoples’ lives, which should not be taken for granted. While efforts to decrease work hours are in good “heart and health” for both patients and physicians, there is evidence proposing that hourly restrictions would not improve physician performance and could put patients at risk. Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, who is an author and the chief of pediatric cardiology at  UMass Medical School, explains the issues that arise with limiting shift hours, stating, “Work-hour reductions lead to more handoffs of patients, and the number of these handoffs is one of the strongest risk factors for error. As a result, many hospitalized patients are at the mercy of a real-life game of telephone, where a message is passed from doctor to doctor — and frequently garbled in the process.” Less mistakes may be made by one doctor, but more mistakes occur when different doctors rotate their patients and miscommunication becomes misdiagnosis. Further studies have been done but haven’t concluded the matter for debate. Investigation of residents’ health and performance with reduced hours have been unable to give clear answers:  

       The impact of the duty hour regulations on educational variables has also been surprisingly mixed. Residents’ educational experience appears to have been adversely affected by the regulations. Surveys of key clinical faculty and residents themselves have found that, although residents’ quality of life has improved since 2004, their overall educational experience may have worsened, because they have less time available for teaching and to attend educational activities. A 2014 systematic review found that surgical residents had lower case volumes and scored more poorly on certification exams after implementation of duty hour restrictions. (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) 

       Even residents argue the benefits of reducing hours. In a recent survey of more than 1,000 surgical residents, two of every three disliked the restrictions and most said the quality of their education decreased (Seaman). While it is unclear what can work to benefit both doctors and the people they treat while pertaining to work policies and humane expectations of the physician, it is undeniable how crucial their part is in caring for others’ lives, and how critical their position is when it compromises their own.  

       Physicians and physicians in training are forced to work under a heartlessly structured system that needs reform, but still prioritizes their patients and quality medical education. Healthcare cannot be a field that works to achieve optimal wellbeing for only one side when both the giver and receiver must be healthy in the process. There should be a middle ground that can be met to fulfill the needs of all patients, and people, in the room. Hopefully, a compromise can be made, and more compassion is given towards physicians.