Hospital + Healthcare Autumn 2022

Page 22

SAFETY

The safety fallout of worker fatigue in health care

©stock.adobe.com/au/Yingyaipumi

Amy Sarcevic

22

For as long as Consultant Emergency Physician Dr Stephen Parnis can remember, he has begun each shift on his various emergency wards wondering how many workers will be present. Absenteeism — due to COVID-19 infections and isolation orders — has been so rife through parts of the pandemic that some teams have regularly had to operate at half capacity.

T

understaffing he fallout of understaff ing has been huge, Parnis says, with workers across the sector collectively burnt out. Forced to take on longer hours and stretch themselves thinner during shifts, it is little wonder that 56% are “exhausted” and 86% under stress. With mental fatigue at an all-time high, so too, Parnis believes, are clinical errors.

Cognitive impairment

“Worker fatigue is something that all health systems need to be very mindful of at present,” Dr Parnis told Hospital + Healthcare. “In emergency medicine, it is fair to say that whether you are a doctor, nurse, allied HOSPITAL + HEALTHCARE

AUTUMN 2022

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