Working time restrictions may have increased tensions between trainees and consultants, studies find

Abstract

European restrictions on working hours may have increased tensions between junior doctors and their senior colleagues, researchers have found. Two studies published on BMJ Open showed that doctors saw restrictions on working hours as having reduced junior doctors’ time in training and increased the work carried out by consultants. But the researchers behind the studies said that it was difficult to determine whether doctors’ concerns stemmed from the restrictions themselves or the way that hospitals had implemented them. One study was a qualitative analysis of 279 unsolicited free text comments about the European Working Time Directive (EWTD).1 The responses—from 1993, 2005, and 2009—were made by three groups of UK medical graduates as part of a wider survey of doctors’ training and career choices. This study found that the reduction in junior doctors’ time in training and the increase in work for senior doctors may have created tensions between the two groups. “Some consultants indicated that they felt beleaguered by carrying some of …