You have to admire the headline writer: “Rookie Doctors Will Soon Be Allowed To Work Up To 28 Hours Straight.” The passive-aggressive use of “be allowed” suggests that doctors have been demanding that right. What were they going to do, a reverse strike, not stop working until management caved and they were limited to no more than 28 in a row?
In fact, management is now being “allowed” to make doctors work inhuman shifts.
The longest shift I ever worked was 36 straight hours, and I made a ton of money ($540, it was 1970 and I was 24) but you wouldn’t want me practicing medicine halfway through. I do not understand the practice of forcing someone who is not in full command of his faculties to make life or death decisions. It almost seems like hazing the rookie is more important than patient care.
Consider that truck drivers are limited to 12 hours in a row, because public safety. The jokes write themselves.