Impact between Regulation and Reality: Study of the Working Time of Resident Physicians in Medical Center of Central Taiwan

• Main Authors: LO,YI-JUNG, 羅伊容
• Other Authors: MA,TSAI-CHUAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3vbgah

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 勞工關係研究所 === 107 === 　　The nature of work of a physician is based on accountability and responsibility. However, the uncertainty of time required and unpredictability of clinical work expose residents in the risk of working overtime even during non-duty working days. Among them, there were much to be discussed, including: the actual ratio of residents that work overtime on non-duty working days, the total amount of overtime working hours, and the measures undertaken by medical centers or management departments to cope with the regulations of work hours on non-duty working days and total working hours over 4 week period. In 2017, Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announced the “Resident Labor Rights Protection and Working Hours Guidelines” (2017) where the daily normal working hours limit, the four-week total working time limit and the holiday leave provisions are regulated. In order to implement regulations on promoting resident physician’s labor rights, interviews were undertaken to comprehend the current situation and to workup explicit suggestions. In this study, 10 resident physicians from hospitals rated local community hospital and above were interviewed; an employee from hospital management, a member of local medical association and a member of doctor’s labor union of a hospital were also interviewed. Content included resident physician’s duty hours, current situation regarding holiday leave provisions, and what different parties thought of the guideline on resident physician’s working condition. The study disclosed that: (1) Resident’s working hours did not completely fit with MOHW regulations. (2) Holiday leave provisions were hard to implement. (3) Residents lacked awareness towards MOHW’s guideline. Due to the above findings, this study suggested that: (1) Hospital should recruit more nurse practitioner (NP) to fill in the work force shortage of resident physicians. (2) Academic preparations should be counted towards the total duty hours. (3) Login time on hospital’s online system could be used to determine the actual working hours of residents. (4) MOHW should disclose the results of accreditation of individual hospitals on resident’s duty hours. (5) Government should reinforce resident’s education on their own labor rights. (6) Government should also ehance common people’s awareness on the issue of resident’s labor rights.