Institute for Continuing Education

Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision and Safety

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify the AASM’s recommended hours of work for hospital residents (S.A.F.E.R).
• List the key points of the AASM’s program for improving sleep hygiene of medical interns.
• List the key aspects of the AASM’s report on the interns’ compliance with compliance with accreditation council for graduate medical education work-hour limits.

Course Information

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) offers an extensively updated and revised version of S.A.F.E.R. (Sleep, Alertness and Fatigues Education in Residency), a tool for educating residents about the effects of sleep deprivation on performance.

The new version includes an expanded PowerPoint presentation with core sections on recognizing sleepiness, the effects of fatigue on medical education and strategies for managing drowsiness.

The updated program came about after researchers at Brown University determined that drowsy residents performed as poorly or worse as someone who had consumed three to four alcoholic beverages. The study is published in a September 2007 issue of JAMA.