Medical journal reveals sleepy surgeons as a problem
Before you ever get into a surgery, you should first check on how many hours of sleep your surgeon has had. According to Dr. Michael Nurok, patients should have all the rights to know if their doctors are sleep-deprived.
It is said that patients and doctors should not be put in such situation especially when a surgeon is fatigued. However, surgeons are often sleep-deprived because of unexpected calls, especially those working in urban centers. Nurok said that doctor trainees undergo excessive working hours but that is nothing for fully trained physicians.
The most helpful solution for this is not to schedule doctors for elective surgery when they are fatigued. This is because sleep deprivation hinders a surgeon’s clinical performance and risks of complications are higher than ever.
In a study found in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it has been showed that there has been a dramatic increase in complications among patients especially those who had elective daytime surgery administered by surgeons with less than six hours of sleep before the operation. If a person lacks sleep, he or she is less likely to be effective and is not as accurate as compared if he or she had enough rest.
It has been suggested that patients know if their physicians are not well-rested so that potential hazards during the operation should be avoided. And if patients still choose to continue with the surgery, a letter of consent should be signed by them in front of a witness.