The issue of resident duty hours has garnered interest since, at least, the tragic death of Libby Zion in 1984, an event attributed, in part to the resident fatigue. Duty hours restrictions and regulations have continued to be debated and examined worldwide. Within Canada, the issue reached a new level of urgency when an arbitrator in Quebec ruled in June 2011 that 24-hour shifts pose a danger to residents’ health and, therefore, violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The ruling reverberated throughout the country.
Recognizing this, ICRE organized the Duty Hours: Solutions Across Borders to explore practical ways that residency programs can respond to these challenges.
Experts from across Canada, the United States and England met for a thoughtful, solution-focused two-hour forum. An agreement has been signed with BMC Medical Education to produce a special supplement that will build off this discussion to more fully examine the impacts and implications of duty hours regulation in Canada. This supplement will be published in 2012.
A full summary of the Duty Hours: Solutions Across Borders symposium is now available.
