Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

A systematic literature review was conducted to examine existing studies pertaining to the impacts of chronic sleep deprivation on the quality of patient care delivered by medical residents. Several keyword searches were conducted using Google Scholar, evaluating the first 20 of each search based on established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Analysis of the 7 relevant studies revealed that those utilizing direct clinical evaluations provided the most extensive data. Findings suggested that chronic sleep deprivation impacted the quality of surgical and nonsurgical patient care differently. While impacts on surgical care were largely inconclusive, chronic sleep deprivation appeared to show a negative correlation with the quality of nonsurgical care. These results indicate the need for institutional regulations regarding medical resident working conditions to mitigate performance related effects of chronic sleep deprivation. With residents serving a critical role in the foundations of healthcare, ensuring they have work environments which enable them to provide quality patient care can greatly impact system-wide patient outcomes.