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.
When I worked as a nurse in CA, the standard for shifts was 8 hours, we had 3 shifts in 24h. Some travel nurses took 12h shifts, but staff RN had 8s. Not saying we never made mistakes, but it can be done with proper staffing (4 patients to hand off instead of say, 7) and a culture that respects the handoff time. We did it at the bedside in most cases so the patient could hear what was going on. In CA there are strong unions advocating for patient safety, and as a result, minimizing exploitive working conditions. We were still exploited to be sure, but not like if you’d dropped that hospital in any other state without those protections. Pay was outstanding as well.
Strong unions are the answer to this problem, at least for nurses/support staff. Idk about docs and residency but that is a big part of why becoming a doc never seemed attainable to me.