2. She's also boarded in internal medicine, where she did have to do 30 hour shifts. They are terrible for patients and physicians, and I've been in heated arguments with physicians because I think the primary reason they exist is as hazing.
3. Handoffs are a legit problem; much more in other fields than in the ED. (Though handoffs do exist in the ED). It is a balancing act for that reason, though physicians could do a lot better with the handoff process IMO.
4. http://mef.med.ufl.edu/files/2010/01/Resident-and-Attending-... :
> Handoffs, the transfer of patient care from one health care provider to another, are known to be vulnerable to communication failures8 and have been called “remarkably haphazard.”
and
> When looking specifically at malpractice cases with communication breakdowns, 43% involved handoffs.
5. It's my belief that patient-centric design and communication could eliminate nearly all of these issues while reducing the need for long shifts, but there's a big [evidence needed] tag on that