Differences in public belief and reality in the care of operative patients in a teaching hospital.

Objective: The accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) restricts residents from working more than 80 hours per week averaged over a 4-week period. No such restriction exists, however, for attending surgeons. Little exploration has been done of the public's perception of the number of hours that surgeons work and how residents work with the staff surgeons at a teaching institution.