Impact of long duty hours on education and well-being of diagnostic radiology residents: A national survey in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives: The primary purpose of this study was to assess and report the perceived negative impact of long duty hours on education and personal well-being among medical trainees in the diagnostic radiology residency training program in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study used a questionnaire (sent by email) with eight indicators related to the education and well-being of radiology residents in Saudi Arabia during the academic year 2019–2020. Participants were given a five-point Likert response format for each indicator. The relative importance index (RII) was calculated to rank the different indicators. Results: Our of 337 residents, 116 diagnostic radiology trainees completed the survey, with a response rate of 34.4%. A total of 102 (87.9%) indicated their preference for 16-hour shifts instead of the currently implemented 24-hour duty system. Using the RII, three items related to the post-duty day ranked at the top of the list. The negative impact on sleep rhythm during the post-call day ranked first (mean 4.23 ± 1.02, RII 0.84), followed by the impact on social life, family activities, and exercise during the post-call day (mean 4.09 ± 1.06, RII 0.81). The third highest ranking factor was missing academic activities on the post-call day (mean 3.91 ± 1.15, RII 0.78). There was no relationship between negative perception and gender (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The 24-hour duty system had a negative impact on radiology residents’ education and personal well-being, especially for items related to the post-call day. Reforming duty hours should be considered to promote residents’ well-being. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.3.4440 How to cite this:Alhasan AS, Alahmadi SM, Altayeb YA, Daqqaq TS. Impact of long duty hours on education and well-being of diagnostic radiology residents: A national survey in Saudi Arabia. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.3.4440 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.