A necessary preface:
My residency training occurred in a time when we didn't have work hour restrictions. There were efforts to begin implementing them during my last year of training but they still weren't fully in effect. I wasn't subject to "only" working 80 hours per week, only 30 hours maximum continuous at a time, with a mandate for a full day off every week.
I don't begrudge those who are coming through the system after me because I feel like workhour restrictions are well-intentioned in spirit (though the inflexibility can be frustrating at times). I do have concerns about the continuity of our residents' experience in terms of caring for the most ill patients, and I question if they truly are getting equivalent clinical training to what we got in the "old days". I worry about the development of shift-worker mentality. I'm waiting to see if we have increased attrition in surgery- both at the residency level and the early-practice years level- amongst people who decide that surgery is okay if you can only work 80 hours per week.
But....I revel in the fact that our residents aren't nearly as sleep deprived as I once was, and I especially appreciate that "face time" of just sitting around the hospital waiting for an attending to decide to show up and participate in teaching rounds is a relic of the past (I hated it when my attendings wanted to do this at 4 on Friday afternoons!). I definitely think that training today is more humane than it once was, and that's not a bad thing.

Today I came across this article, published in Slate a couple of weeks ago:
Night float versus sleep deprivation

This remains an interesting question for me, and one for which the data that exists is equivocal at best. Night float residents might provide better care because they are fresh. Sleep-deprived residents (and physicians) might provide better care because they know the patients and any idiosyncratic issues. And a bad resident is going to be a bad resident regardless of the time of day or level of exhaustion, much as a good physician is almost uniformly going to be a good physician; certain skills and abilities either exist or they don't, and commitment to improvement of knowledge and practice either exists or it doesn't.

So, friendly reader, a question for you. I'm going with the assumption that everyone wants a competent, caring physician and so that will be a given in either scenario. Would you rather be cared for by a sleep-deprived physician who knows you well, or a well-rested phyisican who may not have immediate knowledge of the details of your illness or injury?
And why?

Help me with this. I see my physician perspective, I see the educational perspective....but I could use some help with the intelligent patient perspective.