NCT00996320

Work Hour Reductions, Medical Errors, and Intern Well-Being at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center Intensive Care Unit

Effect of Reducing ICU Interns' Work Hours on Sleep, Intern Well-Being, and Medical Errors

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 22 (actual)
• Sponsor: Providence Health & Services · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether reducing intern work hours and eliminating extended shifts in the intensive care unit will reduce prescribing errors and improve intern well-being.

Detailed description

Each intern enrolled will complete three 4-week rotations in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Each intern will complete at least one traditional schedule and one intervention schedule. The traditional schedule consists of an 80-hour work week with overnight call every third night. The longest shift on the traditional schedule is 30 hours. The intervention schedule consists of a 60-hour work week which eliminates overnight call by assigning a variety of shifts ranging from 8 to 16 hours in length.

Conditions

• Sleep Deprivation
• Depression

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Reduced work hour schedule	Interns on the intervention schedule work an average of 60 hours per week over 4 weeks, with maximum shift length 16 hours.

Timeline

• Start date: 2008-06-01
• Primary completion: 2009-06-01
• Completion: 2009-06-01
• First posted: 2009-10-16
• Last updated: 2009-10-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States