Would you like to put your life in hands of a surgeon, who’s fatigued and sleep-deprived? As per an editorial published Thursday in the 'New England Journal of Medicine,' it should be made mandatory for surgeons to tell their patients (opting for elective surgery) about their sleep status before going in for a surgery.
Co-author on the editorial Dr. Michael Nurok, an anesthesiologist and intensive-care doctor from the New York's Hospital for Special Surgery, added, fatigue caused due to sleep-deprivation can mar surgeons’ cognitive and technical performance, which can be fatal for patient on operating table.
“Working while fatigued has been part of the culture of medicine for a long, long time. There has been this idea that training for medicine involves training for working under fatigued conditions, but we now know that fatigued physicians are impaired by their fatigue,” said Nurok.
