Distreth a doctor

By the time this blog is published, my sister has endured the last of her many 36hours (on-call) shifts this month..

From Mar 22 to Mar 30 (9 days), she has worked 4 36hrs shifts and a "normal" working day (which means at least 12 hours of work)..

Let me put them in numbers.

There are (9 x 24hrs) = 216 hrs in 9 days

4 36hrs shifts = 4 x 36hrs = 144 hrs
1 normal day = 1 x 12hrs = 12 hrs
So she had worked (144 + 12) = 156 hrs in 9 days

After deducting those working hours, how many hours has she got left?
216 - 156 = 60 hrs for 9 days
meaning
60 / 9 = 6 hrs 20 mins per day..

In summary, she has (on paper) 6.66 hrs per day to do all the other stuff in her life, like eating, going to the toilet, showering and sleeping.. So let's assume that she managed to cramp everything (commuting, eating, toilet and shower) into an hour and she is able to fall asleep IMMEDIATELY, that means she will have about 5 hours of sleep every night..

What I don't understand is:

• How rested can these trainee doctors be if all they can get is 5 hours of sleep per day, if they are lucky?
• How are they to learn (that is why they are "trainee doctors", isn't it?) and excel (we do want them to excel, don't we?) when they barely have time to even sleep??
• How much of that passion (to serve and help the sick and the needy) will be left when they are constantly exhausted (from all the work), bullied (by the seniors or Medical Officers) and stressed out (from the responsibilities and expectation piled on them when they are not properly trained)???
• Are the relevant authorities blind or just apathetic to these issues?

One of the excuse of inaction is "During our time, things were much worse and yet we toughed it out so they shouldn't be complaining.." Well, dear Sirs and Madams, as you said so yourself, that was "your time".. and in those time, you can buy a loaf of bread with $0.20 and the policemen wears shorts... Just because you gone through hell doesn't mean that the rest has to follow you.. if the objective can be reached without having to go through hell, why must the rest suffer through hell just because you did?? During "your" time, there might not be enough doctors to go around, but NOW, there are plenty of trainee doctors to warrant a closer look at time scheduling and better workload management..

To make things worse, some of the medical officers and specialists decided to "show who is the boss" by consistently belittling and humiliating these trainee doctors. Sometimes they even run-down the trainee doctors in front of the patients or the patients' family. Instead of mentoring their future colleagues, they prefer to "terrorizing" and "mental-stressing" these poor future doctors.. And I must say that due to our education systems which emphasize too much on academic achievement and not all-rounded development, most of the doctors from local universities lack the EQ and aptitude required to be a good doctor..

Given such "inhumane" working hours and stressful working conditions, isn't it a no-brainer that many of these doctors opted to go into private practice or to leave the medical field totally when they get their practicing license??

Frankly I feel sorry for my sister.. and it pains me to see her being so unhappy when she should be enjoying her time in the hospital as she is finally able to help people like she always wanted to.. all I can do for her for now is to give her encouragement and counsel her.. showing her different perspectives on things bothering her and help her overcome them..