Are these really the people that should be required to work so much? Isn’t their job about handling life and death daily? Wouldn’t we want exactly these people to come fully rested to work every single day and be fully staffed?
I don’t know if there are jobs with similar stakes that are so carelessly staffed and disgustingly paid.
The decision making center of your brain is the prefrontal cortex. It’s the really thinky bit. It is what does the explicit thought about novel situations. When something is done “instinctively” or out of habit, that’s usually handed off to the amygdala. It’s used more for stuff that you’ve done many many times before.
When you are tired, haven’t eaten well, and any number of other conditions that overworked and overstressed doctors face, your prefrontal cortex will do a lousy job. The amygdala will actually secrete chemicals that inhibit the performance of the PFC. As such, routine things are probably ok. something novel comes up? Bad times.
I’d prefer my doctor is well rested and in a good frame of mind to make quality decisions, thank you.