If you can do your intern year you can do anything and you learn a great deal in that year. Doctors are legally responsible in ways that nurses aren't and compared to the average doctor the average nurse is an idiot.Then again given the choice between a nurse practitioner and a doctor who's been at work for sixteen hours who just qualified I'd take the np.

All that said outside surgery the hours appear to be mostly hazing. Between lessened fatigue and poorer continuity of care reducing doctors' hours is a wash when analysing fatalities and medical errors. This does not hold for surgery. Reducing intern's working hours clearly results in more patient deaths in surgery. Feel free to check on google scholar.