# Sleepy Samaritans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleepy-samaritans/5882 "2000-01-06T01:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Radix\_Lecti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Radix\_Lecti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Radix_Lecti)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleepy-samaritans/5882/1 "2000-01-06T01:47:00Z")
Why is it that emergency room personnel and other professions such as police officers often times work such long, grueling hours. We’ve all heard about (or maybe its just on TV) the ER staff that work 18+ hours in a row. I have a friend that is a cop and has to work 10-16 hours straight at times, be “on call” on a lot of his so-called days off, and reports to court on a lot of his days off too. It seems to me that folks involved in the life, health, and safety of the public should be well rested and alert. Any comments or insight? ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2000, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleepy-samaritans/5882/2 "2000-01-06T02:35:00Z")
Couple different reasons, I, for example, work ER and ICU as an RN, I work 12 hour shifts, which I love, but when you’re short staffed you just have to put up. Someone calls in sick, too bad, recruitment problems due to (choose your evil/conspiracy theory), deal with it. If your crew is only 85% staffed guess who picks up the slack. Basically, public safety and welfare come first. Another reason is residency programs which routinely require excessive hours for doctors as a training excersise, kind of a do it now while you’re under supervision concept. Larry ---
**Author:** ![RobRoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@RobRoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobRoy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleepy-samaritans/5882/3 "2000-01-07T06:15:00Z")
Those long shifts scare me - I mean the current data about traffic accidents and sleepiness points to similar problems elsewhere. The effort to reform and track medical mistakes will probably addres this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Radix\_Lecti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Radix\_Lecti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Radix_Lecti)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleepy-samaritans/5882/4 "2000-01-07T14:23:00Z")
It seems to me that a recruiting problem would be a short term situation. When the long shifts become a way of life, its a management problem.