The down side of more humane resident hours

While residents these days do spend less time in the hospital than those who trained even a decade ago, the change has had some unpredictable repercussions. The increased "free time" has left residents with less time to form bonds with their patients. The pressure now is to squeeze as much experience as possible into the time limitations, usually at the expense of patient relationships. The transient physician-patient relationships of residency have only become more fleeting.

Pauline W. Chen, Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality  (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), ch. 8