[pc86]

You would likely have to extend residency based on everything that you need to learn for a given specialty. Med school graduates have an average of over $180k in student loan debt - from med school alone - and resident salaries in the 2-4 year programs are mid five figures.

Given the choice, I'm not sure someone whose 4-year earning potential is capped at $60k with $200k in student loans would want to extend that to 5/6/7 years.

[technofiend]

>You would likely have to extend residency based on everything that you need to learn for a given specialty.

I would challenge that assumption because I don't believe there's any consistent number of hours worked by residents in rotation, is there? I mean there are published schedules and then there are actually the number of hours worked which at least according to the other posters is even more than scheduled. So if there's already an element of randomness here and different doctors are getting different numbers of in-rotation hours then it's plausible hours could be made consistent and reduced, isn't it?

[antidesitter]

I believe the GP is talking about increasing the number of doctors, not their years in residency.

[pc86]

You learn how to do your entire specialty during residency. If you cut the number of hours, you have the same amount to learn in less time.

[MereInterest]

That's on the assumption that amount learned per hour remains constant as hours worked increases.

[scott_s]

And that sleep deprivation has no effect on learning ability.

[BeetleB]

You may want to look into why med school is so expensive, compared to other majors.