A complaint from a medical student from Nijmegen that she worked more hours during her internship than is legally permitted was rejected in 2020. The magazine of Radboud University, Vox, published a reconstruction of the case last week.
According to the university magazine, the student filed an official complaint with Radboud University, but was not found in the right. In another article, program director Marjolein van de Pol gives her vision. According to her, the internships run according to the rules and student well-being is very important to Radboudumc.
The student in question calculated on the basis of her schedules that the study load standard of 28 hours per credit was exceeded during internships in hospitals. The maximum legal standard for internships would also sometimes be exceeded. The program director indicates that interns may work a maximum of 46 hours a week. If this is exceeded, compensation can be made, let them know. According to the university magazine, the student did not feel heard with her complaint. Not only the complaint to the university, but also a complaint to the Ko-Raad, representing the interests of interns in Nijmegen, came to nothing.
In Vox, program director Marjolein van de Pol nuances the complaints about the workload of medical students during internships. Contrary to Vox’s assertion, according to her, it concerns one complainant and there would be sufficient compensation for the many hours that co’s work. Vox quotes her as saying: ‘We have to be very careful about counting every hour in a very reductionist way.’
Van de Pol told Medisch Contact that the ‘unique’ combination of a scientific training and a vocational training that is medicine makes it particularly intensive. At the same time, social changes are taking place that have consequences for the way in which young doctors want to carry out their profession, says Van de Pol. ‘Young people have to make career choices early on and think about decentralized selection. Medical students have a specialism as a distant goal on their minds, while they gradually grow up. Their values can change. Sometimes they see that the way care is organized does not match how they want to fill their lives. And by no means all young doctors in training realize that the majority of doctors work outside the hospital as doctors.’
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