Edited by Priya Melepat and Sean Sudalaimani
Abstract
The way employment statutes currently interpret resident physicians is inconsistent and ambiguous, with it being unclear whether residents are legally employees, students, or a mix of both. While many scholars have addressed the negative effects of medical residents’ unclear legal status, namely, limited due process and unclear discrimination protections resulting from unaddressed circuit splits, little has been proposed to resolve these issues on a larger scale. This note proposes that a more uniform legal classification of resident physicians as employees would better represent residents’ duties and lead to improved working conditions for residents. To reinforce such classifications, it outlines two mechanisms for promoting these changes: the continued application of legal functionalism in future court rulings that interpret residents’ employment status and resulting administrative actions from OSHA and CMS.
