Take Action

Implement Leading Practices

Implement a Fatigue Management Policy and Program

Embed a fatigue management policy and program within patient safety expertise but have an interdisciplinary advisory team and clear interdisciplinary focus.
Define organizational and personal responsibilities and interventions to increase awareness of fatigue and to implement strategies to reduce risk associated with fatigue in the workplace.
Identify and measure risk associated with fatigue for key tasks and professional groups. Analyse impacts of mandatory overtime, 12 hour shifts, shift rotation and hours of work on patient/client, provider and organizational outcomes.
Address fatigue issues from a shared responsibility approach (system, organizational, and individual).
Reduce work-overload and overtime through staffing strategies that guarantee the number of health professionals required instead of using overtime. Where overtime hours are being worked, employers should work with their managers and front-line staff to minimize and, where possible, eliminate overtime hours.
Educate on strategies to improve quality of sleep.
Identify risks of and strategies for addressing compassion fatigue/spiritual fatigue and psychological fatigue (due to cognitive dissonance and moral residue issues).
Define the "line" for decision-makers between operational efficiency and too great a negative impact on the fatigue and stress levels of staff.
Conduct a multi-disciplinary study and evaluation of models of management of fatigue further.

The chain of evidence shows direct correlations between work overload and worker stress which causes fatigue. Fatigue is linked to risk of adverse events and health problems for providers and both of which impact the overall quality of care provided.

Evidence shows linkages between fatigue among clinicians and the safety of patients, the working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety and the incidence of preventable adverse events related to hours of work.