I have noticed my moral has dropped immensely on this schedule. It is definitely hard to balance work with social life, exercise, and sleep.
Moreover, if the ama didn't limit the supply of physicians to boost salary, you could get better hours (post resident) at the cost of lower salary (still over 100k). Is that a trade you think most physicians want?
Oh, well that makes sense then. People learn best when they're depressed and sleep-deprived, right?
When I started my career, I went into a very famous IT firm here in India. Being from a non-CS background they put us through a grueling training schedule. Which together with the course work, assignments, project work, tests, interviews and exams put us on a 20 hour schedule for around 3-4 months- Failure means getting fired, and in this country where getting jobs is quite difficult for a fresher that was not even an option. We stayed in the campus hostel, pretty much training and occasional recreation is what we did.
Guess what even after 7-8 years later, the biggest edge I hold over my peers is that training. Basically because we went through every thing there is about out there. At the end, we might have gained what one would gain after 2-3 years of working in a few months. Needless to say that set a new bench mark for us, knowing we had absorbed the difficult and come out strong- You change into a different person.
The problem is that shorter hours increases the number of patient handoffs between doctors. Most residents cap at 12 patients. So, as you're trying to get out the door to go home, eat some food and sleep, you have to brief the incoming doctor on 10-12 hours of care for 12 patients. Either you have to go fast and skip some stuff, or you'll be there forever.
The other issue is interruptions. Hospitals are busy places, and sometimes someone needs to get in and get some information from one of the doctors doing the handoff, causing a legitimate interruption. As we know, even a few seconds can derail your whole train of thought. It's definitely still an open problem.