The shortage is purely artificial; the AMA keeps a cap on numbers to make sure pay stays high.
The Maine Experiment suggests that when an area has more doctors, they administer more procedures, many of them unnecessary. This counters your simple supply-demand argument--doctors actually manipulate demand.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1135711...
Yes, but that doesn't refute my point. My point was sleep deprivation doesn't make better doctors or even encourage better doctors to stay.
Frankly, I'm surprised that as many doctors make it through - the working conditions are pretty terrible. Maybe the pay makes up for it, but you only get paid well once you get out of your residency or fellowship.
Better conditions will probably produce better doctors, not subpar doctors.
Re:Sleep is more important than food
by joe_the_user on Wednesday March 09, 2011 @03:09PM
(#2306172)
Yes it is. Of course hazing/weeding processes are the means used to achieve this.
The only area that learning how to deal with sleep deprivation would be a benefit is surgery and critical care areas (ICUs). But then again, if you could schedule things better and get more doctors in, maybe these doctors don't have to learn how to function on 5 hours of sleep.
I think you're right to the extent that the current medical service system requires doctors to learn to sleep less and less while functioning on an acceptable level (note that I didn't say satisfactory or even exceptional). But I think that's begging the question. Shouldn't we be able to change the current system and allow doctors to focus on building skills/knowledge, not the ability to function without sleep.
tl;dr: sleep deprivation is not a necessary part of being a doctor if we change the system, so saying that doctors must learn how to deal with sleep deprivation is a circular argument.