Impact of Duty Hour Regulations on Medical Students’ Education: Views of Key Clinical Faculty

BACKGROUND Teaching faculty have valuable perspectives on the impact of residency duty hour regulations on medical students. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to elicit faculty views on the impact of residency duty hour regulations on medical students’ educational experience on inpatient medicine rotations. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a National Survey of Key Clinical Faculty (KCF) at 40 internal medicine residency programs affiliated with U.S. medical schools using a random sample stratified by National Institutes of Health funding and program size. MEASUREMENTS This study measures KCF opinions on the effect of duty hour regulations on students’ education. RESULTS Of 154 KCF targeted, 111 responded (72%). Fifty-two percent of KCF reported worsening in the overall quality of students’ education compared to just 2.7% reporting improvement ( p