The Harvard Gazette is reporting on a new study that shows that “Too many 24-hour shifts worked by hospital interns cause medical mistakes that harm and may even kill patients. ” Apparently,

Interns who put in more than five 24- to 30-hour shifts in a month were involved in 300 percent more fatal errors than when they did not work extended shifts.

Not to mention that they also

stick themselves with needles, and lacerate themselves with scalpels and broken glass at increased rates.

Well, whodathunk? Sleep-deprived doctors not performing flawlessly? Thanks, Harvard Medical School, for advancing the frontiers of science where common sense no longer kicks in!

But seriously, thanks, with no sarcasm attached. As a pre-med myself, it is comforting to know that the fabled culture of competition and self-abuse looming in my future is, at the very least, now being called into question. More encouraging is that the changes in attitude are being expressed by professionals within the field, in addition to the concern long held by outsiders. In Europe, medical students are forbidden by law from working more than 13-hour days, and a new bill in the Massachusetts legislature hopes to instate a similar, albeit 18-hour, cap on American hospitals. While ER and Grays Anatomy will lose an easy explanation for the moodiness of their characters, the rest of the public — and our poor med students, lest we forget — can all benefit from better health and, thankfully, a less dramatic existence.

In fact, this is a much-needed dose of sanity not just to overzealous young interns but to ambitious undergrads and high school students alike. Though I can’t presume to speak for them, I’m sure that most of the doctors-in-training out there are still fundamentally motivated by a desire to get things done, and to get them done right. Not to mention by compassion for our fellow human, plans to save the world, plans to conquer the world, plans to save the world after conquering it, etc. Sound familiar? You don’t have to be a medical student to have these goals, nor should you slave away like the proverbial medical student to work toward them.

As I write this, I know that many of my fellow science concentrators are laboring away at their problem sets and studying for tests, while others are equally hard at work on some massive paper or reading assignment. Some of the high school seniors I tutored for SATs this summer are probably biting off their nails waiting for their early-action applications to come back and affirm their worth. I myself will probably return to a problem set shortly, and get to bed much later than I know I should. Those equations we stay up for hours to memorize; the hard-earned letters of recommendation in which we hope others find a favorable if fleeting glimpse of ourselves; the letter grade that magically confers on us the right to heal others — our achievements are nothing more than a means to an end, and it’s downright tragic if we spend even a small part of our lifetime with mistaken priorities.

If there’s anything a liberal arts education should teach us about what it means to be human, it’s that to be human is itself the only end worth pursuing, and all our actions should eventually facilitate that, either for ourselves or for others. Our generation is already post-modern, post-industrial, post-haste, super-sized, super-charged, and super-saturated enough with the sheer intensity and weight of existence. We’d do best to turn the dial back a few notches, or to hit the pause button for a good, long, refreshing breath.

I had intended to attempt an explanation of why we (myself included) work so hard. Instead I’m afraid I’ve only echoed a refrain that’s been beat to the ground by those older and more enlightened than us. If only it would resound farther than it has. In a school — indeed, society — full of such hardworking and intelligent individuals, I wonder if we might do less, and end up being more.