In general, I agree with you. One important difference needs to be pointed out: In order to prevent drunk driving, we are measuring a substance (alcohol) that has some (albit, not perfect) corrolation with drunkness. We have no way to measure sleepiness. Some people need just 6 hours of sleep to be wide awake. Me? I can manage with 6, but 8 is ideal for me. Also, if I had a few tiring days, even 8 isn't enough, and I may crush and need 10 hours. The same is true if I drank the night before. I think you catch my drift. Saying: He has worked 16 hours straight and thus he is too tired, is simplistic. I argee it is better than what we have now, i.e. no rules whatsoever, but it is far from ideal.
First of all, I was talking about the medical system. I order to have doctors working shorter hours, you need to have more doctors -> more money. Secondly, in the US doctors might make a lot of money, but in Israel (where I am from) and many other countries, the doctors' salary isn't so lucrative. I am not saying I am starving, but considering how much I work, it's pretty disgracing. If I wanted to have a good salary, I would have gone to IT (yes, you read that right). I will make good money, but only 15 years from now, when/if I have a private clinic, otherwise my salary will be above-average but I will not be making as much as you might guess.
I can assure you that most doctors I know, me included, know that the long hours endager our patients. We do not take pride in taking someone to the OR at 4AM while barely being able to tie our shoelaces correctly. It is not pride, but necessity. The present situation is that doctors need to work a lot. Why? Lack of personnal, lack of money lack of resources (Actually, it can all be summed up in: Lack of money). The reason is not important. The bottom line is that a doctor needs to operate a patient. Ideally, he should be wide awake. Unfortuntly, sometimes this is not the situation, even for elective surgeries. We shouldn't point the blame at the doctors, but at the system. Yes, it's nice to tell horror stories of what I have to do in the middle of the night after 20 hours of working without a minute of sleep. But every doctor I know will have the situation changed to 8 hour shift at the first chance possible.
And now us doctors will have another reason to be afraid of lawsuits: "Your honor, evidence shows that the defendant was awake for 16 hours straight and did not inform the patient. Thus, he should be found guilty of malpractice!" Of course we shouldn't have tired doctors (nurses, technician, etc.) working and treating patients, but as long as the system demands it (because of shortage of staff [and money, of course]), you can't put the blame on doctors and open up another avenue for lawsuits.
The temperature would be this wiggly line on the graph, see, and though there are down-wiggles, they are fewer / smaller than the up-wiggles over the longer term.
Actually, there is exactly the same amount of up-wiggles as there are down-wiggles (or maybe +/-1). You can't have 2 up-wiggles in a row, they would just make one big up-wiggle. You should probably just say that the down-wiggles are smaller than the up-wiggles, not fewer. The rest of the post is great, BTW, thanks!
No, it was 3 years for the committee to define the project, 4 years for budget planning, 2 years 10 month to write the proposal, 54 days to find the contractor, 6 days to get myself to sit down and do it, 2 hours to solve the problem and another hour for lunch. 21 hours ahead of schedule! Damn, I'm good.
And on the other hand, I had a disc with a Sign Language dictionary. From just about 6 years ago. Problems? The videos were encoded with Intel Indeo. Surprise, Windows dropped support for this after XPSP1. After overcoming this problem, I wanted to use the movies without the program. So I had to find the file that linked between a word and its corresponding videos (which were, of course, numbered). Good luck figuring out it was made with Macromedia, getting the new Adobe Director, updating the file... and voila! No prob. Let's see someone do that in 10 years.
Damn, already posted on this thread. +1 Insightful. I admit I never looked at things this way. I always sneered at all those "so-called" facebook friends. I still don't think I will jump on the FB bandwagon anytime soon, but at least I will understand/accept it a bit more.
I don't understand it, how come someone tells us that the news is at 11 and he is modded insightful? Let me try it also: Simpsons at 8! Jay Leno at 10!
P.S. If you are going to reply with a Whoosh, then I Whoosh you back, be warned:).
They didn't sell much because of many other factors, including problems with the hardware, going exclusive with Sprint for the first 6 month, bad advertisements, etc. The software had gotten mostly praises from those who reviewed it. I think both of us are old enough to know there isn't always a good correlation between the quality of a product and its sales record (*ahem* Windows *ahem*).
Well, at least Palm's WebOS is already completely open. Not only is it easy to "root", it is actually encouraged by Palm (and the new HP overlords). Although Palm Pre had lousy sales, its open approach is part of what helped it maintain a dedicated user base. I think many handset makers could learn that you can have a platform that is easy to use and hackable at the same time. Layman can just use it as it is, while (a bit) more advanced users can enjoy the wealth of homebrew programs and patches to make the phone go to 11.
As a doctor I can tell you that many times I see patient who do not have anything wrong physically, but they still feel ill. Doing a thorough check and then explaining everything to the patient can do wonders to him - if done emphatically. A doctor that treats the patient well, will be rewarded with patients who feel well - even before he gives them even one pill. As to chronic diseases, many are real (i.e. not psychosomatic), but the mental state of the patient has a huge impact on the preceived disability of the patient. If he is down, his physical complaints will be intensified and if his mood will go up, he will also feel less ill. This is one of the reason that I am very liberal with antianxiety medications, such as Valium. It's not that I give them the pill and send them away, but together with a nice attitude, explanations and thorough examination, they feel a lot better by the time I am finished with them... and then the primary treatment for whatever they are suffering from has a better chance at success.
Well, time for a change of occupation. Can you please send me your home address... Don't ask why, you'll find-out after coming back from your Christmas vacation.
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In general, I agree with you. One important difference needs to be pointed out: In order to prevent drunk driving, we are measuring a substance (alcohol) that has some (albit, not perfect) corrolation with drunkness.
We have no way to measure sleepiness. Some people need just 6 hours of sleep to be wide awake. Me? I can manage with 6, but 8 is ideal for me. Also, if I had a few tiring days, even 8 isn't enough, and I may crush and need 10 hours. The same is true if I drank the night before.
I think you catch my drift. Saying: He has worked 16 hours straight and thus he is too tired, is simplistic. I argee it is better than what we have now, i.e. no rules whatsoever, but it is far from ideal.
First of all, I was talking about the medical system. I order to have doctors working shorter hours, you need to have more doctors -> more money.
Secondly, in the US doctors might make a lot of money, but in Israel (where I am from) and many other countries, the doctors' salary isn't so lucrative. I am not saying I am starving, but considering how much I work, it's pretty disgracing. If I wanted to have a good salary, I would have gone to IT (yes, you read that right).
I will make good money, but only 15 years from now, when/if I have a private clinic, otherwise my salary will be above-average but I will not be making as much as you might guess.
I can assure you that most doctors I know, me included, know that the long hours endager our patients. We do not take pride in taking someone to the OR at 4AM while barely being able to tie our shoelaces correctly. It is not pride, but necessity.
The present situation is that doctors need to work a lot. Why? Lack of personnal, lack of money lack of resources (Actually, it can all be summed up in: Lack of money). The reason is not important. The bottom line is that a doctor needs to operate a patient. Ideally, he should be wide awake. Unfortuntly, sometimes this is not the situation, even for elective surgeries.
We shouldn't point the blame at the doctors, but at the system.
Yes, it's nice to tell horror stories of what I have to do in the middle of the night after 20 hours of working without a minute of sleep. But every doctor I know will have the situation changed to 8 hour shift at the first chance possible.
I, as a doctor, have the right to operate people, as part of my license, under the condition that I have been given informed consent.
And now us doctors will have another reason to be afraid of lawsuits: "Your honor, evidence shows that the defendant was awake for 16 hours straight and did not inform the patient. Thus, he should be found guilty of malpractice!"
Of course we shouldn't have tired doctors (nurses, technician, etc.) working and treating patients, but as long as the system demands it (because of shortage of staff [and money, of course]), you can't put the blame on doctors and open up another avenue for lawsuits.
The temperature would be this wiggly line on the graph, see, and though there are down-wiggles, they are fewer / smaller than the up-wiggles over the longer term.
Actually, there is exactly the same amount of up-wiggles as there are down-wiggles (or maybe +/-1). You can't have 2 up-wiggles in a row, they would just make one big up-wiggle.
You should probably just say that the down-wiggles are smaller than the up-wiggles, not fewer.
The rest of the post is great, BTW, thanks!
Accepted
I don't think overlordofmu was so sophisticated. I think it was a real blunder. Your whoosh is undeserving.
Actually, I think it's called sarcastic.
I really liked your comment. Very insightful. I think I'll give it... 8/10.
Yes, some Linux distos have Indeo codecs, but Windows dropped support a few years ago. Since I have only Windows on my machine...
The great thing is that I was modded insightful too... and I was going for funny. Well, QED.
Thanks, but problem already solved. I actually have reason to doubt its support for Windows 7, but it shall remain an exercise for others.
No, it was 3 years for the committee to define the project, 4 years for budget planning, 2 years 10 month to write the proposal, 54 days to find the contractor, 6 days to get myself to sit down and do it, 2 hours to solve the problem and another hour for lunch. 21 hours ahead of schedule! Damn, I'm good.
I eventually overcame the problem, but the codec from Ligos, the company that has the copyright for Indeo, doesn't have support for 64-bit Windows 7.
And on the other hand, I had a disc with a Sign Language dictionary. From just about 6 years ago. Problems? The videos were encoded with Intel Indeo. Surprise, Windows dropped support for this after XPSP1. After overcoming this problem, I wanted to use the movies without the program. So I had to find the file that linked between a word and its corresponding videos (which were, of course, numbered). Good luck figuring out it was made with Macromedia, getting the new Adobe Director, updating the file... and voila! No prob.
Let's see someone do that in 10 years.
Damn, already posted on this thread. +1 Insightful.
I admit I never looked at things this way. I always sneered at all those "so-called" facebook friends. I still don't think I will jump on the FB bandwagon anytime soon, but at least I will understand/accept it a bit more.
I don't understand it, how come someone tells us that the news is at 11 and he is modded insightful? Let me try it also: Simpsons at 8! Jay Leno at 10!
P.S. :).
If you are going to reply with a Whoosh, then I Whoosh you back, be warned
They didn't sell much because of many other factors, including problems with the hardware, going exclusive with Sprint for the first 6 month, bad advertisements, etc. The software had gotten mostly praises from those who reviewed it.
I think both of us are old enough to know there isn't always a good correlation between the quality of a product and its sales record (*ahem* Windows *ahem*).
Yeah, we wish! I don't think even the OP is that naive.
Well, at least Palm's WebOS is already completely open. Not only is it easy to "root", it is actually encouraged by Palm (and the new HP overlords). Although Palm Pre had lousy sales, its open approach is part of what helped it maintain a dedicated user base.
I think many handset makers could learn that you can have a platform that is easy to use and hackable at the same time. Layman can just use it as it is, while (a bit) more advanced users can enjoy the wealth of homebrew programs and patches to make the phone go to 11.
As a doctor I can tell you that many times I see patient who do not have anything wrong physically, but they still feel ill. Doing a thorough check and then explaining everything to the patient can do wonders to him - if done emphatically. A doctor that treats the patient well, will be rewarded with patients who feel well - even before he gives them even one pill.
As to chronic diseases, many are real (i.e. not psychosomatic), but the mental state of the patient has a huge impact on the preceived disability of the patient. If he is down, his physical complaints will be intensified and if his mood will go up, he will also feel less ill. This is one of the reason that I am very liberal with antianxiety medications, such as Valium. It's not that I give them the pill and send them away, but together with a nice attitude, explanations and thorough examination, they feel a lot better by the time I am finished with them... and then the primary treatment for whatever they are suffering from has a better chance at success.
I guess his ACME Irony-generator had an outage together with Skype. They should be fine in a few hours.
Well, time for a change of occupation. Can you please send me your home address... Don't ask why, you'll find-out after coming back from your Christmas vacation.
I stand corrected, thanks.