Medical Student Duty Hours

Following is our policy on medical student duty hours.

• Medical student duty hours must be limited to 80 hours per week averaged over four weeks.
• Continuous (daily) on-site duty must not exceed 24 hours of continuous patient care duties. Up to an additional three hours of transition time used for transfer of patient care, rounds, and grand tours is allowed.
• Adequate time for rest and personal activities must include an eight-hour period, and should include, a 10-hour period, between all daily duty periods.
• Medical students must have at least 24 consecutive hours free from all duty each week.

Limiting required duty hours does not imply that medical students must cease providing essential patient care services at arbitrary cutoff times. Priority must always be given to patient safety and well-being and to avoiding transferring patient care responsibilities to others at inappropriate times in the continuum of care (e.g., during an operative procedure, in the midst of a rapidly evolving clinical event).