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Comment by munificent | Hacker News Reader

The work is very different. If I'm coding and I'm tired, I can go home and get some sleep. When I get in the next day, the code is exactly how I left it.

A doctor can't put their patients in suspended animation while they get some shut-eye. The patient's condition may worse or improve. They may make vague complaints that are clues that can only be pieced together if you were around to pick up all of them.

Likewise, it's very very difficult for a doctor to serialize every bit of data they've gleaned from a patient to pass on to the next doctor to come on rotation.

Because of that "continuity of care"—having one doctor around to continuously interact with the same patient—is really important. It would definitely be great for doctors to work shorter hours, but it does have some real costs. Patients aren't text files.

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This is all very true, but on the other hand: if you're coding and you're tired it's exceedingly unlikely that your mistake would kill someone.

Unless you're coding medical devices.

You are presumably not writing the code and immediately patching some device that is hooked up to a patient.

It cuts both ways. If you're coding and you decide to go home early, it is also exceedingly unlikely that your absence will kill someone.

4*12 = 48 hours a week and 2 people a day, 4 per week. Long hours is mostly a staffing issue. 24/7/365 is very hard when you don't have a lot of people.

Note, staggered hand-offs also work best. You really don't want everyone to leave at the same time.

My understanding from friends in the medical field is that doctors also nap during their shift. Obviously not as beneficial as a good night's sleep and probably depends on what's going on during their shift but it does alter the comparison a bit.

Yea, but naps really boost productivity even for just a short nap. I wish the start-up culture was more cool with naps. Spoken from someone who has worked at large and small startups that sometimes after lunch just really needs a nap.

Occasionally after lunch, I'll get hit with this intense wave of sleepiness, which no amount of caffeine seems to be able to fix. The best I can do is stare at my screen blankly through half-closed eyes while my brain is more or less shut off. It can last up to an hour. It's horrible, I've literally looked up motels in the area to see if I can nap during my lunch break but no luck :(

Are you eating large heavy meals? Try more, smaller, lighter meals.

Good point, this is probably a contributing factor that I've overlooked.

I sometimes will nap in a conference room for twenty minutes just testing my head on my arms which I have crossed on the table. Helps tremendously.

I often just go for walks at this point in the afternoon.

I have the same problem.

Usually I make sure I have some busywork or easy stuff set aside that I can do in that time period without requiring a lot of mental effort.

That's what I like about Google.

At the same time, a tired doctor is going to miss things, and is going to make shitty decisions.

Do you have any evidence that's a relevant favor in the practice? Eg: how many times does a doctor see the same patient again in a shift? Is that really relevant across all medical positions/specialties?

But patients can and should be more similar to text files. It's a real tragedy that patients die simply because a doctor failed to write accurate notes for the next shift.

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