I wish I could give you more than 5 points for this question! I have often wondered the very same thing myself.

I have often wondered the same thing. It is a bad practice and leads to much malpractice I am sure.

Lets face it. I think its the experienced doctors taking a few liberties. You find that the top consultants do the least work. Althoug they often see patients in clinics its the doctors and surgeons under them who actually perform most of the operations and stay on the wards incase of emergencies. They had to work hard when they started doing it and I think they think because of that the lesser experienced should have to do the same for them. I worked in a hospital and you know the older consultants. They are allways playing golf.

The medical students aren't the ones working the long hours. Actually, they're pretty sheltered! It's not until internship and residency that you start working the long hours. (I look back at my med school graduation pictures and laugh. I'm holding my diploma and smiling, with no awareness that I'm about to get hit by a freight train...) :-) As to why this happens, there are a number of factors. The one that doctors most often cite is the need for trainees to see as much as possible about the course of illness. To a degree, this is actually true. Now that I can look back on it objectively, I learned an incredible amount on overnight call. However, I can also say that I probably made some mistakes that I wouldn't have if I'd been more rested. I think a very large part of the reason why trainees work long hours is economics. Interns and residents are cheap labor. You don't have to hire a hospitalist (at full physician rates) to staff the hospital overnight if you've got a team of house staff that have to do it to complete their training. Residency was the worst three years of my life. Was it necessary? Yes. Do I think it had to be that way? No. They've already made changes to the work hour rules since I finished training. The changes haven't been in place long enough to judge their effectiveness, though. Great question!

The doctors need to have time off to golf and pursue other activities. Hanging around sick people all the time can be depressing.

Because the top doctors are too busy popping their Vicodin and sharpening their razor wit.

It comes from war and the necessity of functioning under adverse conditions. Doctors are subject to call up during war and once the bullets start flying there is no time to train them so they train them to function under those conditions.