Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2020 - 11

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Associate Dean...
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he associate dean for one of the nation's biggest resident programs, who would speak to
us on the condition that he would not be identified, said that a great deal has changed
since a lot of the people who have spoken to Dr. Wible were residents.

The 80-hour workweek is now an upper limit, as is the 24-hour shift. "The culture is very
different than it was 10 years ago. People are very attentive to rest today. We encourage our
residents to speak up if they're too tired and they need a nap. We've actually built rooms in our
hospital just to go take naps for an hour."
He strongly disagrees with Dr. Wible's description of residency working conditions as
inhumane. "We are required to allow staff to get time off during the week for medical care,
dental care or mental health. Every resident program in the United States provides some level
of mental health services for residents and fellows. We've gone so far as to make sure we have
mental health resources off campus, for residents who have any concerns about confidentiality."
He added that suicides are complicated tragedies. "To say that suicide occurred in a resident
because of his or her residency program, is certainly not going to be true all the time. There
may have been relationship issues or depression, for example."

He said back when he was a resident emotional support only came from your colleagues.
Today, he said, it's a crucial part of a resident program. "We have systems in place to help people
deal with traumatic events. And people are much more attuned to providing a hand on the
shoulder, a comforting word."
He emphasized that no reforms will ever eliminate stress in medicine. "It's a stressful job. It
doesn't stop. It's different for different areas of medicine. I'm not sure you can create a profession
like medicine without it. I don't think you can make medicine a field without risk of stress and
burnout. You have to anticipate it, manage it, and help people recognize it in themselves when
they're under certain kinds of stress or burnout. And you have to make sure they can get the
resources they need to manage it." *

I don't think

you can make
medicine a field

without risk
of stress and
burnout.

Summer 2020 : Philadelphia Medicine 11

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Philadelphia Medicine Summer 2020

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