Doctors-In-Training May Give More Than Medical Care

It may be true that doctors-in-training want to give their patients their all. But it turns out their "all" may sometimes include giving patients their germs, too.

A study in this week's JAMA finds that second- and third-year residents are more likely than not to show up for work even when they are sick with flu-like symptoms, despite federal health guidelines suggesting they not do that.

The study sent anonymous questionnaires to a total of 744 male and female residents in several specialties at 12 hospitals around the country. The responses differed little by  sex, specialty, or where they attended medical school.

But nearly 60 percent of respondents said they had worked while sick at least once and nearly a third reported having worked while sick more than once. At one "outlier" hospital not named in the study, 100 percent of the respondents reported having reported to work while sick.

A related problem, the survey found, is that busy medical residents (who are already known to not get enough sleep in the early years of post-medical school training, despite rules attempting to ensure they do) also reported not having enough time to see a doctor for their own medical care.

Overall, nearly 53 percent of those responding to the survey say they lacked the time to see a doctor for their own care during the previous academic year (for surgeons-in-training it was closer to 60 percent).

The study's authors, suggest that several reasons for the continuing problem of "presenteeism," including "misplaced dedication, lack of an adequate coverage system, or fear of letting down teammates." Whatever the reason, they say, teaching hospitals need to do a better job of discouraging residents from showing up at work when they are sick.

And the next time that young doctor walks into your hospital room and asks you how you're feeling, you might want to ask him or her that same question. It couldn't hurt.