The Boston Globe’s “White Coats Notes” offers news and comments on a new study out of The Brigham on the public perception of medical residents’ working hours.

Dr. Charles Czeisler of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his colleagues report today on a telephone survey that asked people how many hours they thought resident physicians worked in a single shift and over the course of a week. Most of the 1,200 respondents thought the residents, who have graduated from medical school and are training in hospitals, worked no more than 12-hour shifts and no more than 80 hours a week. In reality, resident physicians are allowed to work up to 30 consecutive hours, twice a week, under guidelines set by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education.