Work Hour Reductions, Medical Errors, and Intern Well-Being at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center Intensive Care Unit

Effect of Reducing ICU Interns' Work Hours on Sleep, Intern Well-Being, and Medical Errors

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT00996320

Enrollment

Registered

2009-10-16

Start date

2008-06-30

Completion date

2009-06-30

Last updated

2009-10-16

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Depression, Sleep Deprivation

Keywords

Internship and Residency, Medical Errors, Burnout, Professional, Burnout, Depression, Actigraphy, Personnel Staffing and Scheduling, Sleep Deprivation, Workload, Humans, Adult, Male, Female, Intensive Care Units, Prospective Studies, Crossover Studies, Work Schedule Tolerance, Disorders of Excessive Somnolence, Guideline Adherence, Internal Medicine Education

Brief summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether reducing intern work hours and eliminating extended shifts in the intensive care unit will reduce prescribing errors and improve intern well-being.

Detailed description

Each intern enrolled will complete three 4-week rotations in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Each intern will complete at least one traditional schedule and one intervention schedule. The traditional schedule consists of an 80-hour work week with overnight call every third night. The longest shift on the traditional schedule is 30 hours. The intervention schedule consists of a 60-hour work week which eliminates overnight call by assigning a variety of shifts ranging from 8 to 16 hours in length.

Interventions

OTHERReduced work hour schedule

Interns on the intervention schedule work an average of 60 hours per week over 4 weeks, with maximum shift length 16 hours.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

CROSSOVER

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Interns rotating at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center ICU

Exclusion criteria

* Diagnosis of narcolepsy

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Multiple Sleep Latency Test	Measured once a month for each intern while on ICU rotation, at least 14 days into the scheduled 28 day cycle

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Hours slept per night measured by actigraphy	Daily
Pharmaceutical order error rate	Daily
Burnout measured by Maslach Burnout Inventory	Measured once per month for each intern while on ICU rotation, at least 14 days into the 28 day rotation
Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II)	Measured once per month for each intern while on ICU rotation, at least 14 days into the 28 day rotation
Hours worked per shift on the traditional and intervention schedules	Daily

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026