Surgeons-in-training had fewer opportunities to take part in operations after restrictions on their working hours were put in place in July 2011, according to a new analysis. Researchers tracking a group of first-year surgical residents during 2011 and 2012 found the trainee surgeons took part in an average of 26 percent fewer operations than their counterparts in the previous four years. The restrictions were built on existing regulations, enacted in 2003, that limited resident work weeks to 80 hours. A recent survey of more than 1,000 surgical residents found that about two of every three disliked the restrictions and most said the quality of their education had gotten worse.
