Working While sick? Doctors Do It, Too Often.

By: Bill Waters
Staff Writer
Published: Sep 16, 2010

Working while sick? Doctors do it, too. If it's bad for co-workers, what do you tell physicians?

For doctors, exposure to ill patients' comes with the territory. However, what happens when doctors chose to come to work sick, in fear of letting down co-workers? In 2009, researchers analyzed an anonymous survey of 537 medical residents at 12 hospitals around the country by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

The response rate was high in the results which can be found in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association Close to 58 percent of the respondents stated that they have worked at least once while sick and 31 percent stated that they have worked more than once while sick during the previous year. Half of the residents stated that they did not have time to see a doctor about their illness.

Dr. Thomas Nasca, the accreditation council's CEO, stated "Residents are trained to put patients' needs above their own but also should recognize that if they're sick, their patients' would be better served by having another doctor take care of them."

Dr. Lauren Hughes, a former president of the American Medical Student Association and a first-year resident in Seattle, stated, My program directors have warned residents "to take extra special care of ourselves" during the approaching flu season and winter months, and to stay home when sick."

"You can't take care of other people if you don't take care of yourself," Hughes added.