The Fatigue Associated With Working The Night Shift

With regard to sleepiness, several studies indicated that the average of sleep duration in 1910 to 2002 have decreased from 9 to 6 hours on workdays (National sleep foundation, 2002; Groger et al., 2004). Recently, a survey study of Roger et al. (2004) shows that an American Nurses have an average of 84 minutes more sleep on non workdays. Thus, shift work suggested as a cause of sleeping disorder among nurses where they feel of sleep during the shift. Considering the contributing factors of sleepiness, the literature identified that long working hours and rotating shifts are causing sleeping disorder. In the night and rotating shifts, the nurses are rarely obtained adequate amount of sleep. In fact, the nurses experiencing less sleeping hours (1 to 4 hour) than normal sleeping (Zeisler et al.,1980). Nevertheless, insufficient sleep is a significant reason of damaging planning, decision-making, and integration of information (Krueger, 1994; Harrison and Horne, 2000). More recent studies have revealed that long hour shifts and overtime are strongly linked to the difficulties of being a wake through the shift which leads to increase the risk of making an error (Scott et al., 2006; Roger et al., 2004).

There are various examples of incidences where sleep deprivation has made 911 dispatchers issue wrong services and consequentially cause injuries or death to people needing the services. In one of the recent cases which happened in 2012, a 911 dispatcher in Maryland failed to order an ambulance despite the efforts of a woman who called to report her husband’s troubled breathing (Clarke). While the

The continued shortage of registered nurses will be a catalyst for the increasing stress placed upon practicing nurses now and in the future. Mandatory overtime has been an incessant problem within the nursing profession. When lives are at risk, alertness is a critical part of a nurse’s job performance. Fatigue impairs one’s judgement directly affecting patient and nursing safety or outcomes. This author’s typical six week work schedule consists of eighteen-twelve hour shifts, nine “required” twelve hour call shifts, and three-four hour back-up shifts. A nurse that accepts a patient assignment in the operating room cannot legally or ethically leave when their shift has ended without proper relief. Inevitably, without proper staffing departure is not an

First off I wanted to say I enjoyed reading your post and, in my opinion all of your ideas listed in this weeks post regarding, the growing number of homeless people in the downtown business district, were excellent. Almost all of us this week agree that a survey needs to be established to help identify why this is a growing problem. That being said, I particularly liked your idea of having a night shift survey at different times of the night to see how many homeless are sleeping within what areas, and also having a day shift to survey the areas to see how many are panhandling. This idea is not only useful for gathering information, but also to help with public safety.

In this proposal the findings stated that the likelihood of making an error is three times higher when working more than 12.5 consecutive hours of nursing practice. Errors made in the healthcare profession can put the patient’s life in jeopardy so it is important for workplaces to take all of these statistics into consideration. The proposal also found that errors are increased with overtime or working over 40 hours per week and night shift workers may have difficulty staying awake due to disturbance in circadian rhythms. In today’s society nurses often work 12 hour shifts, and this evidence is concerning. Nurses are supposed to give their full attention to their patient and have love for what they are doing, but fatigue is getting in the way of that.

No pilot is immune to fatigue. All pilots need the required rest to maintain their alertness and performance to function at their highest level. Part 121 flights and rest time are controlled the most because pilots are scheduled by taking into account rest schedules and previous duty schedules. Part 135 rest times are the same as Part 121, but allow more flight time per calendar year, month, and seven consecutive days. Part 91 in general are less stringent because pilots are normally weekend flyers and do not fly as many days as Part 121 and Part 135 pilots. All pilots, no matter which Part the fly under, should maintain regular sleep habits, avoid caffeine and alcohol before bedtime, and avoid going to bed hungry. Pilots should keep fit, eat regular meals, control emotional and psychological aspects of their life, and prepare for

Can you imagine costing a patient their life due to your lack of sleep, long shifts, and working to many hours? Me either. “In 2011, the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert to call attention to health care worker fatigue as it relates to patient safety, noting a link between healthcare worker fatigue and adverse events. In addition to patient safety concerns, there is an increased risk of injury in fatigued healthcare workers (Martin, 2015).” Lets explore the dangers of fatigue, and its importance to nurses, way that nurses can prevent fatigue, and possible ways to lower fatigue and enhance sleep. What standards are in place in the nurse practice

Inadequate sleep and resulting fatigue has major implications on the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care. Fatigue can also be costly to employers, resulting in increases in health care and workers’ compensation costs, early disability, recruitment and training costs, and legal fees. In 2014, the Professional Issues Panel on Nurse Fatigue led the effort to update ANA’s position statement on nurse fatigue. “Registered nurses and employers in all care settings must collaborate to reduce the risks of nurse fatigue and sleepiness associated with shift work and long work hours. Evidence-based strategies must be implemented to proactively address nurse fatigue and sleepiness and to promote the health, safety, and wellness of registered nurses and ensure optimal patient outcomes.” This statement articulates the American Nurses Association’s (ANA)

Fatigue and sleepiness, tendency to fall asleep, go hand in hand as nurses struggle to stay awake during long, consecutive, day or night shifts. For example, in the Staff Nurse Fatigue and Patient Safety Study, the number of nurses who reported an error or a near miss had less hours of sleep than the nurses who did not report an error or a near miss, and it was determined that there is a 3.4 percent chance of a nursing error when nurses get 6 hours of sleep or less in the prior 24 hours; another study found that the chances of making an error was three times higher when nurses worked more than 12.5 hours per shift (Rogers, 2008). In the Staff Nurse Fatigue and Patient Safety Study, over two thirds of the participants reported that they struggle to stay awake while working and 20 percent reported incidence of falling asleep during their shift (Rogers, 2008). Nurses also do not get adequate breaks while working long shifts, according to the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) less than 50% of work breaks for are away from patient care, which means nurses never truly get a chance to relax (Phillips, 2014). Not only is the patient safety at risk when nurses are fatigued, but the well being of nurses is at stake as well. While nurses are fatigued they are risking their

This learner can recommends that it will be up to the nurses to be willing to make substantial changes in their behavior. Managers may be urged to consider altering the starting times of shifts whenever possible to make schedules more compatible with circadian rhythms. Avoid scheduling employees to work more than two or three consecutive night shifts and to providing adequate recovery time between shifts, especially when between night and day shifts. Hours of service regulations, where applicable, should also be considered in the development of a fatigue management program.

The EMT profession is one of the few professions left in America that have unregulated work shift hours. Twenty-four hour work shifts are common among the EMT industry and the resulting fatigue is causing mental and physical health issues with EMT’s as well as safety issues for both EMT’s and the patients they are responding to. I believe that the EMT profession needs work hour regulation similar to those of long haul truck drivers, medical residents, pilots and railroad conductors. ”Virtually every branch of commercial or public transportation has very strict rules on hours that their employees can operate, except EMT.”(Medic Madness) The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) plans to announce a research team in the coming years, which will develop fatigue management programs for the EMT industry. These programs will educate EMTs on proper fatigue management as well as teach them the negative effects fatigue has on the body and mind. In my opinion, the regulation of work hours and the development of fatigue management programs in the EMT profession is long overdue.

The abstract provides a nice summary of the article including the purpose, method, results and conclusion of the study. There is no real sense of urgency portrayed in the abstract because the authors fail to explain what the problem is that the study is aimed at researching. The authors do include the applicability of their

I agree with the friend. While it was their responsibility to complete the work that came on during their shift, they are not to blame for the stain deteriorating. I don’t think that the supervisor had the right to yell at the friend considering, the night shift was late to work and it was past their shift and they did not notice that the stain was having issues until after the slide was made. Had the cell stainer had problems earlier in their shift then it would have been problematic. However, saying that the friend is to blame for the night shift’s delay in work and how it could have compromised patient care, if the night shift had been on time, the whole process might have been taken care of more effectively. I believe there was too much blame placed on the friend, when really both parties could have been blamed for some parts, so I think it was addressed poorly.

Nurses are placed in a position to make difficult decisions during the night shift when there are not enough staff members to handle patients that suffer from sundowners due to acuity differences from day shift to night shift. Many sundowner patients become agitated and even aggressive during the night shift, which day shift nurses do not experience when they assign patient acuity (Cipriani et al., 2015). During the night shift, nurses are given fewer, if any, certified nursing assistant (CNA) to assist in the workload of staffing. This limitation places nurses in the position of decreasing quality nursing care in patient safety.

It is my opinion that shift work is another potential hazard to me as an employee in the Healthcare Industry. It is my belief that employees on nightshift work or those working irregular hours may be more susceptible to errors and accidents, mainly due to fatigue or