Medical residents in hospitals are often required to be on duty for long hours. In 2003 the organization overseeing graduate medical education adopted common program requirements to restrict resident workweeks, including limits to an average of 80 hours over 4 weeks and the longest consecutive period of work to 30 hours in order to protect patients and residents from unsafe conditions resulting from excessive fatigue. Resident Duty Hours provides a timely examination of how those requirements were implemented and their impact on safety, education, and the training institutions. An in-depth review of the evidence on sleep and human performance indicated a need to increase opportunities for sleep during residency training to prevent acute and chronic sleep deprivation and minimize the risk of fatigue-related errors. In addition to recommending opportunities for on-duty sleep during long duty periods and breaks for sleep of appropriate lengths between work periods, the committee also recommends enhancements of supervision, appropriate workload, and changes in the work environment to improve conditions for safety and learning. All residents, medical educators, those involved with academic training institutions, specialty societies, professional groups, and consumer/patient safety organizations will find this book useful to advocate for an improved culture of safety.

This is a new and outstanding contribution to understanding the working life of junior doctors. It opens out the field of research in sociology and inserts junior medical doctor culture right into medical sociology and professional medical education by its innovative use of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework and the concept of habitus. This volume challenges many of the myths of the medical cultural experiences and socializing forces that are an integral part of early medical training.

Graduate medical education (GME) is a continually evolving, highly dynamic area within the complex fabric of the modern health-care environment. Given the rapidly changing regulatory, financial, scientific and technical aspects of GME, many institutions and programs face daily challenges of "keeping up" with the most recent developments within this ever-more-sophisticated operational environment. Organizational excellence is a requirement for the seamless functioning of GME programs, especially when one consider the multiple disciplines and stakeholders involved. The goal of the current book cycle, titled Contemporary Topics in Graduate Medical Education, beginning with this inaugural tome, is to provide GME professionals with a practical and readily applicable set of reference materials. More than 20 distinguished authors from some of the top teaching institutions in the US, touch upon some of the most relevant, contemporary, and at times controversial topics, including provider burnout, gender equality issues, trainee wellness, scholarly activities and requirements, and many other theoretical and practical considerations. We hope that the reader will find this book to be a valuable and high quality resource of a broad range of GME-related topics. It is the Editors' goal to create a multi-tome platform that will become the definitive go-to reference for professionals navigating the complex landscape of modern graduate medical education.

GEOFF NORMAN McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada CEES VAN DER VLEUTEN University of Maastricht, Netherlands DA VID NEWBLE University of Sheffield, England The International Handbook of Research in Medical Education is a review of current research findings and contemporary issues in health sciences education. The orientation is toward research evidence as a basis for informing policy and practice in education. Although most of the research findings have accrued from the study of medical education, the handbook will be useful to teachers and researchers in all health professions and others concerned with professional education. The handbook comprises 33 chapters organized into six sections: Research Traditions, Learning, The Educational Continuum, Instructional Strategies, Assessment, and Implementing the Curriculum. The research orientation of the handbook will make the book an invaluable resource to researchers and scholars, and should help practitioners to identify research to place their educational decisions on a sound empirical footing. THE FIELD OF RESEARCH IN MEDICAL EDUCAnON The discipline of medical education began in North America more than thirty years ago with the founding of the first office in medical education at Buffalo, New York, by George Miller in the early 1960s. Soon after, large offices were established in medical schools in Chicago (University of Illinois), Los Angeles (University of Southern California) and Lansing (Michigan State University). All these first generation offices mounted master's level programs in medical education, and many of their graduates went on to found offices at other schools.

The medical profession requires extensive training and preparation in order to ensure the success and competency of future doctors and healthcare professionals. With an emphasis on professional development and medical education, current professionals in this field acknowledge the importance of residency programs and training in the professional development of future doctors. Optimizing Medicine Residency Training Programs presents a comprehensive overview of chapters ranging from the history of medicine to opportunities and research for further exploration geared toward the professional development and medical training for the next generation of doctors and healthcare professionals. This publication is an essential reference source for academicians, practitioners, and professionals interested in the education and training of modern medical professionals.