Fatigue-related risk perception among emergency physicians working extended shifts.

There is a growing body of studies indicating that extended shift duration has an adverse effect on fatigue, consequently leading to reduced work performance and higher risk of accident. Following modern fatigue risk management systems (FRMS), acceptable performance could be maintained by the mobilization of appropriate mitigation strategies. However, the effective deployment of such strategies assume that workers are able to assess their own level of fatigue-related impairments. In this study, we sought to determine whether emergency physicians' subjective feelings of sleepiness could provide accurate knowledge of actual fatigue-related impairments while working extended shifts. We conducted a prospective observational study with a within-subjects repeated measures component. We collected sleep logs, sleepiness ratings and reaction times on a Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) at different time points during shifts. Our results show that the PVT is sensitive to sleep loss and fatigue, with a 10% increase in mean reaction time across the shift. Subjective sleepiness, however, showed no significant association with time since awakening and was not a significant predictor of PVT performance. Our results are consistent with experimental studies showing that individuals tend to underestimate fatigue-related impairments when sleep deprived or functioning under adverse circadian phase. The discrepancy between subjective sleepiness and actual fatigue-related impairments may give workers the illusion of being in control and hinder the deployment of mitigation strategies. Further research is needed to determine the relative weight of circadian phase shifting and cumulative sleep deprivation in the decline of self-knowledge in extended shifts.

Fatigue-related risk management in the emergency department: a focus-group study.

Fatigue has major implications on both patient safety and healthcare practitioner's well-being. Traditionally, two approaches can be used to reduce fatigue-related risk: reducing the likelihood of a fatigued operator working (i.e. fatigue reduction), or reducing the likelihood that a fatigued operator will make an error (i.e. fatigue proofing). Recent progress mainly focussed on fatigue reduction strategies such as reducing work hours. Yet it has to be recognized that such approach has not wholly overcome the experience of fatigue. Our purpose is to investigate individual proofing and reduction strategies used by emergency physicians to manage fatigue-related risk. 25 emergency physicians were recruited for the study. Four focus groups were formed which consisted of an average of six individuals. Qualitative data were collected using a semi-structured discussion guide unfolding in two parts. First, the participants were asked to describe how on-the-job fatigue affected their efficiency at work. A mind map was progressively drawn based upon the participants' perceived effects of fatigue. Second, participants were asked to describe any strategies they personally used to cope with these effects. We used inductive qualitative content analysis to reveal content themes for both fatigue effects and strategies. Emergency physicians reported 28 fatigue effects, 12 reduction strategies and 21 proofing strategies. Content analysis yielded a further classification of proofing strategies into self-regulation, task re-allocation and error monitoring strategies. There is significant potential for the development of more formal processes based on physicians' informal strategies.