ENTtoday
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • Practice Focus
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Departments
    • Issue Archive
    • TRIO Best Practices
      • Allergy
      • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
      • Head and Neck
      • Laryngology
      • Otology/Neurotology
      • Pediatric
      • Rhinology
      • Sleep Medicine
    • Career Development
    • Case of the Month
    • Everyday Ethics
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Medical Education
    • Online Exclusives
    • Practice Management
    • Resident Focus
    • Rx: Wellness
    • Special Reports
    • Tech Talk
    • Viewpoint
    • What’s Your O.R. Playlist?
  • Literature Reviews
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Events
    • Featured Events
    • TRIO Meetings
  • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
    • Triological Society
    • Advertising Staff
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Place an Ad
    • Classifieds
    • Rate Card
  • Search

Work Hour Limits for Medical Residents Spur Otolaryngologists to Rethink Patient Handoffs

by Cheryl Alkon • September 1, 2013

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version


It was the beginning of an overnight shift, and the junior resident was the only one in house. He had been briefed about the group of patients he was responsible for, and one patient—who had a complex cancer and underlying cardiac issues and had just come out of a long surgery—had been prescribed a specific antibiotic following the procedure. But what step would the resident take next, when the patient developed a cardiac arrhythmia due to intraoperative blood loss or fluid shifts at 2 a.m.? Would it be something the junior resident had decided on the fly, or had a senior attending physician already envisioned this possibility and discussed how to respond, hours before?

You Might Also Like

  • Standardized Medical Resident Handoffs Could Improve Patient Outcomes
  • Resident Restructure: Attendings adjust to new work-hour rules
  • Otolaryngologists View Resident Work-Hour Restrictions: ACS calls for in-depth investigation before mandating further restrictions
  • Adapt Medical School Curriculum to Residents’ Learning Style
Explore This Issue
September 2013

How well these questions are answered depends on how the patient handoff—the information the day’s group of doctors presented to the overnight shift—went earlier in the shift. The handoff procedure is a crucial part of patient care, and standards to strengthen it were implemented in 2011 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). In light of the 2003 resident duty hour restrictions—limiting residents to working 80 hours a week, overnight shifts every third or fourth night and at least 10 hours off between shifts—most people admitted to a medical center for care will be seen by at least two shifts of health care workers as one group takes over for the next.

For residents, knowing how to communicate crucial handoff details is a skill learned on the job. Those details boil down to two questions: 1) What is the bottom line for each patient? and 2) What are the potential interventions if a patient deviates from what is expected? With more groups of people overseeing patients in an era of restricted medical resident work hours, the potential for missed details has increased.

How should handoffs work? “There is a basic expectation that physicians transfer relevant information to colleagues in instances in which they are not available to their patients 24/7,” said Ingrid Philibert, PhD, MBA, ACGME’s senior vice president of the department of field activities. “This predated the duty hour limits, but the limits increased the frequency of handoffs and made the consequences of no, or suboptimal, handoffs much more prominent.” With additional people taking over responsibility for patients over any given day or week, there are “more opportunities for missed, erroneous or distorted information being transferred during these handoffs,” she added.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 | Single Page

Filed Under: Departments, Medical Education, Resident Focus Tagged With: handoff, residentsIssue: September 2013

You Might Also Like:

  • Standardized Medical Resident Handoffs Could Improve Patient Outcomes
  • Resident Restructure: Attendings adjust to new work-hour rules
  • Otolaryngologists View Resident Work-Hour Restrictions: ACS calls for in-depth investigation before mandating further restrictions
  • Adapt Medical School Curriculum to Residents’ Learning Style

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

The Laryngoscope
Ensure you have all the latest research at your fingertips; Subscribe to The Laryngoscope today!

Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
Open access journal in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery is currently accepting submissions.

Classifieds

View the classified ads »

TRIO Best Practices

View the TRIO Best Practices »

Top Articles for Residents

  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Why More MDs, Medical Residents Are Choosing to Pursue Additional Academic Degrees
  • What Physicians Need to Know about Investing Before Hiring a Financial Advisor
  • Tips to Help You Regain Your Sense of Self
  • Should USMLE Step 1 Change from Numeric Score to Pass/Fail?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • Experts Delve into Treatment Options for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • Weaning Patients Off of PPIs
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • New Developments in the Management of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • Eustachian Tuboplasty: A Potential New Option for Chronic Tube Dysfunction and Patulous Disease
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment
    • Podcasts Becoming More Popular Method of Education for Otolaryngologists
    • How to Embrace Optimism in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Tips on How to Approach Conversations with Patients about the COVID-19 Vaccine
    • Steps You Should Take to Protect Your Voice and Hearing During Telemedicine Sessions
    • Routine Postoperative Adjunct Treatments Unnecessary for Idiopathic Cerebrospinal Fluid Leaks

Polls

Have you spoken with your patients about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Visit: The Triological Society • The Laryngoscope • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology

Wiley
© 2021 The Triological Society. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN 1559-4939

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
This site uses cookies: Find out more.