80 hour work week

Also, for those of us who are extreme newbies (MS1s), does anyone care to elaborate on what exactly a night float system is? Thanks.
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my program has added a research year, making it a 6 year gig. that shifted enough manpower to take care of the 80 hour problem.
as for the night-float system. it's great as long as your are not the night-float.

Night float doesn't work for smaller programs. My program (2 residents/yr) is moving towards home call. Time spent at home does not count towards the 80 hr week. It also allows for the on-call person to stay later in the morning to go to the OR with any trauma cases held overnight to be done the next day. This also helps with the night float-continuity problem where you work up a case that the attending doesn't want to do in the middle of the night then you hand off to your bro in the morning because you have to leave.

We are also having the interns take ortho call during most of the non-ortho months. This means no more general surgery call! Starting in the second half of the PGY-1 year, interns won't take call with a junior resident, so that basically adds two extra bodies into the rotation for several months. It makes a big difference in the ortho call load and ends some of the slave labor that other services get from the ortho interns for most of the year.

We've also made two research positions outside of the residency program for someone who has completed PGY-1. These guys will also help with call at one of our less busy hospitals (doesn't have any trauma and is already home call). There are no guarantees about getting a spot in the residency program. Suffice it to say, these spots are not easy to fill.

I heard a rumor that the 80 hour work week requirement was changed to a recommendation, settling the issue. Has anyone heard differently?
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It's not a recommendation california - this is not a consult. It's a mandate. Programs lose their accreditation if they don't comply. The ACGME has spoken.

Anyone else have any thoughts? There must be more than 2 of you out there in ortho programs. What is your program doing about this, and how?

boneflute: in a night float system, one resident comes in at night and covers the service until morning so other residents don't take call. Any hours can be used, like 8 pm to 8 am, or 6 pm to 6 am.

This resident does this for a period of time, like a week or 2 weeks or even longer. Residents then switch being on "night float".

The point of this system is to cut down on number of calls taken by residents.