It seems like the essentially free work done by interns/medical students is instrumental to these bad systems and procedures continuing.
I wonder what would happen if an intern group got together and said "No. This is a stupid and dangerous way of doing things. We're no longer going to turn up an hour early for a 12-hour shift to copy out notes that should have been taken in a more sensible way to start with."
Interns are typically not fully licensed to practice medicine without supervision, which is the point of a residency program (they take more exams to this effect at the end of the residency). This is why the hospital has enormous bargaining power over them and the hours/wages are markedly different from those of attendings. Unionization of residents is still very rare because the hospital essentially has the power to end the residents' careers for such behavior.
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It seems like the essentially free work done by interns/medical students is instrumental to these bad systems and procedures continuing.
I wonder what would happen if an intern group got together and said "No. This is a stupid and dangerous way of doing things. We're no longer going to turn up an hour early for a 12-hour shift to copy out notes that should have been taken in a more sensible way to start with."
Interns are typically not fully licensed to practice medicine without supervision, which is the point of a residency program (they take more exams to this effect at the end of the residency). This is why the hospital has enormous bargaining power over them and the hours/wages are markedly different from those of attendings. Unionization of residents is still very rare because the hospital essentially has the power to end the residents' careers for such behavior.