Abstract:
Shiftwork has been recognized as a major psychosocial distress with clinical implications. In Complejo Sanitario San Luis (San Luis Medical Center), medical residents (MR) work 90 hours a week. They suffer from sleep deprivations, acute and chronic fatigue, and they face multiple risks to their health and to patients’ safety. Chronopsychology applied to the study of shiftwork proposes a criterion for a better arrangement of shifts, ensuring the protection of workers’ health and the quality of medical services, and offers alternative treatments for cases of lack of adaptation. Workers were trained in sleep hygiene and lifestyle compatible with night work and extended work shifts in order to be aware of how their bodies and cognitive and emotional faculties which depend on wellness and physiological harmony responded. Since this is an issue related to risks to health in a public service which affects both parts involved (patients and professionals), it should be open to wide and public debate, including preventive measures aimed at regulating the limit of working hours per shift and week.