nurse fatigue and patient safety research report

Fatigue was consistently associated with mental health problems, decreased nursing performance, and sickness absence. Many studies confirmed that nurse fatigue is negatively associated with nurse, patient-safety, and organizational outcomes.

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What are the dangers of nurse fatigue?

Nurse fatigue caused by working long hours can be dangerous for both nurses and patients. For instance, a tired nurse may mistakenly record a healthcare provider’s phone orders to continue home medications on the wrong medical record, causing a patient with diabetes to fail to receive insulin.

How common is alarm fatigue in nurses?

In the same study, as many as 81% of respondents stated that alarm fatigue results from the excessive number of false alarms [ 25 ]. It is noteworthy that 52% of nurses do not know how to prevent alarm fatigue.

Are nurses responsible for fatigue and sleepiness in the workplace?

As advocates for health and safety, registered nurses are accountable for their practice and have an ethical responsibility to address fatigue and sleepiness in the workplace that may result in harm and prevent optimal patient care. 5 There must be a collaborative effort between employers and nurses to help prevent the risks presented by fatigue.

What is the American Nurses Association's position statement on nurse fatigue?

American Nurses Association. Position Statement: Addressing Nurse Fatigue to Promote Safety and Health: Joint Responsibilities of Registered Nurses and Employers to Reduce Risks. September 10, 2014. nursingworld.org/~49de63/globalassets/practiceandpolicy/health-and-safety/nurse-fatigue-position-statement-final.pdf.

What effect does nurse fatigue have on patient safety?

Working long shifts, night shifts, and rotating shifts, as well as mandatory or voluntary overtime, contributes to nurse fatigue, which results in accidents, mistakes, and errors. But beyond the safety and ethical implications, fatigue can also lead to legal consequences, including loss of license.

How does fatigue affect patient safety?

The evidence is overwhelming that nurses who work longer than 12 consecutive hours or work when they have not obtained sufficient sleep are putting their patients' health at risk; risk damaging their own health; and if they drive home when they are drowsy, also put the health of the general public at risk.

How can nurses reduce fatigue?

Prioritize sleep, making every effort to get enough despite work schedules. Participate in physical activities outside of work such as jogging, walking, weight training, or swimming. Keep a regular eating schedule and eat healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits, nuts, and lean proteins.

How does staff burnout affect patient care?

Burnout has adverse outcomes on physician well-being, patient care, and the health care system. Doctors who keep working despite experiencing signs of burnout are more likely to have decreased work productivity, exhaustion, and poor quality of care when compared to their earlier careers.

What are the effects of fatigue?

People who are fatigued are more easily distracted, are less able to concentrate, tend to forget things more easily, take longer to solve problems, make more mistakes, have slower reaction times, and take more risks than they might otherwise. At the extreme, they might fall asleep while operating a vehicle!

How does fatigue affect work?

The consequences of fatigue Fatigue causes employee performance to suffer due to a diminished ability to make safe decisions, reduced attention spans, impaired memory, and decreased reaction time and accuracy.

Why is nursing fatigue important?

The fatigue caused by sleep deprivation is not only harmful to patients and the general public, but to nurses themselves. Without proper sleep, nurses are more likely to suffer a needlestick injury or risk potential health issues such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, depression, and cardiovascular disease.

Why is it important to prevent nursing burnout?

The Impact of Nurse Burnout Nurse burnout harms patients and, in turn, healthcare organizations. The distress nurses experience hinders their performance, which can reduce the level of care they deliver and even put patients in danger.

What happens when nurses are overworked?

Overworked nurses tend to make mistakes in judgment, which result in medication errors, negligent patient care and accidents. Patients tend to avoid getting into hospitals that receive a great deal of negative publicity, unless they cannot avoid it.

What is Maslach theory of burnout?

Maslach (1982) later defined burnout as a psychological syndrome involving emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment that occurred among various professionals who work with other people in challenging situations.

What leads to burnout in nursing?

Nurses may experience burnout due to a variety of causes. Some of the most common reasons for nurse burnout include long work hours, sleep deprivation, a high-stress work environment, lack of support, and emotional strain from patient care.

What is nurse fatigue?

Nurse fatigue is defined by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as impaired function resulting from physical labor or mental exertion. There are three types of fatigue: physiological (reduced physical capacity), objective (reduced productivity) and subjective (weary or unmotivated feeling).

How does compassion fatigue affect patient care?

The impact of compassion fatigue on nurses can be profound. It may cause stress-related symptoms and job dissatisfaction among caregivers and decreased productivity and job turnover within the healthcare system (Medical News Today, 2010).

What effect can lack of sleep have on a client in the hospital?

Research also suggests that lack of sleep may adversely affect cardiovascular and respiratory functions. In more severe cases, disrupted sleep cycles can increase the risk of confusion and even delirium among children and adults in the intensive care unit, Dr. Federman says.

Why is sleep important for patient care?

Sleep is essential to recovery and well-being, and nurses are well placed to support patients to achieve and sustain sleep. » Sleep has a restorative function and is particularly important in maintaining patients' health and well-being. » Sleep deficit has been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease ...

What is healthcare fatigue?

Fatigue can be defined as 'mental and/or physical exhaustion that reduces your ability to perform your work safely and effectively'. It may lead to increased risk of work errors, increased risk of accidents and injuries, reduced reaction times, reduced motivation and other issues.

What is the difference between fatigue and sleep?

Fatigue is the feeling of tiredness and decreased energy that results from inadequate sleep time or poor quality of sleep . Fatigue can also result from increased work intensity or long work hours.

What is the challenge of sleep deprivation?

One challenge in addressing sleep deprivation among clinicians is that adequate sleep time requires a combination of effective organizational policies regarding work hours, shift rotation, and sleep policies, as well as personal commitment to good sleep habits.

Is cognitive performance affected by sleep deprivation?

In contrast to dynamic, naturalistic decision-making, certain types of cognitive performance are less sensitive to sleep deprivation. Complex tasks that are rule-based and interesting or require critical reasoning in logical well-practiced tasks show less sleep-related degradation of performance.

How many hours of sleep do nurses need?

Nurses’ responsibilities to themselves related to sleep include the following: • Secure 7 to 9 hours of undistracted sleep each 24-hour period. • Rest before arriving to work, if needed. • Acknowledge the side effects of over-the-counter and prescription medications that may impair performance and alertness.

Who faces the greatest challenge to wellness and quality sleep?

The nurses who face the greatest challenge to wellness and quality sleep are those who staff the night shift. Evidence-based tips for night nurses are seemingly as elusive as the sleep they need, but some best practices do exist. (See Sleep tips for night nurses .)

How many hours does a nurse work?

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) describes a normal work shift as “a work period of no more than 8 consecutive hours during the day, 5 days a week with at least an 8-hour rest.” Nurses whose work environment demands 12-hour shifts are working what OSHA describes as an extended or unusual shift that “incorporates more continuous hours, requires more consecutive days of work, or requires work during the evening.” These shifts may be more mentally, physically, and emotionally taxing to employees, leading to increased fatigue, stress, and lack of concentration, which in turn may result in a heightened risk of error, injuries, and accidents. To put this into perspective, Petrov and colleagues equated the traditional night-shift schedule of two or three sequential 12-hour shifts from 7 pm to 7 am followed by 2 to 5 days off to the jet lag experienced when flying roundtrip from San Francisco to Tokyo every few days.

What is the role of nurses in healthcare?

Nurses empower patients and encourage healthy behaviors. They owe the same duty to themselves. All nurses are obligated to abide by evidence-based recommendations that promote their health and safety. Individual nurses and healthcare organizations must pursue solutions to significantly reduce workplace fatigue.

What is the code of ethics for nurses?

The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements acknowledges that nurses are ethically accountable to themselves, the public, and employers. Nurses’ responsibilities to themselves related to sleep include the following:

Why do nurses have second jobs?

To further complicate matters, some nurses maintain second jobs, potentially leading to even greater risk. Lack of sleep, caused by extended work hours and circadian rhythm misalignment, increases the risk of car accidents, patient care errors, and health issues such as obesity, heart disease, and hypertension.

What is 12-hour shift?

Nurses whose work environment demands 12-hour shifts are working what OSHA describes as an extended or unusual shift that “incorporates more continuous hours, requires more consecutive days of work, or requires work during the evening.”.

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