Are these really the people that should be required to work so much? Isn’t their job about handling life and death daily? Wouldn’t we want exactly these people to come fully rested to work every single day and be fully staffed?
I don’t know if there are jobs with similar stakes that are so carelessly staffed and disgustingly paid.
The best justification I’ve heard is that every time you change doctors or nurses at a shift change you introduce discontinuity of patient care. Meaning more opportunity for error. I’m not saying it’s a good justification, just the best I’ve heard.