Awareness

Dr Paul Jackson discusses workplace attitude towards fatigue:

If anything is going to change, we need to change the culture around fatigue.

How to recognise Fatigue

Fatigued, not Stress!

The long-term effects of fatigue can be similar to stress, so it is not surprising for people who are suffering from fatigue to think they are stressed.

Of course, work can cause both stress and fatigue and they often go together, but it is important to understand as much as possible about fatigue so that you can take the correct action.

Fatigue symptoms are, but not exclusively, often:

Insomnia (often brought about by irregular shift patterns)
Inability to concentrate –

Unable to focus on more than one thing at a time
Difficulty remembering names, numbers or certain words
Unable to recall recent events
Being slow to react
Collectively these may be referred to ‘brain fog’.

Depression and anxiety
Overly emotional
Headaches
Confusion (see brain fog)
Dizziness
Blurred vision
Unexplained weight loss or gain
Digestive problems

Someone suffering from fatigue, by comparison with their normal ability, may be likely to:

Find it hard to concentrate, make clear decisions or take in and act on new information
Have frequent, or more frequent lapses of attention or memory
React slowly, or more slowly (to hazards arising in the workplace)
Make more errors
Be overly irritable
Occasionally fall asleep at work – momentarily or for several minutes
Have low motivation or interest in their work

This means that people with fatigue are not only likely to be performing badly, they can also pose a danger to themselves and others.

Over time, they also risk damaging their health.

Key is to recognise the signs of fatigue

If you would describe your feelings of tiredness as:

‘a different type of tiredness from what you usually experience’, it is likely to be fatigue.

It’s worth remembering too, often we may try exercise to combat tiredness, but exercise can exacerbate fatigue and leave you feeling exhausted for days on end. Try light exercise to see how your body responds.

‘Brain Fog’ – this catch-all refers to issues with concentration, memory and cognitive ability.

problems remembering certain words, names or numbers
difficulty concentrating or difficulty focusing on more than one thing at a time
problems remembering things that happened recently
being slow to speak or react to things

Sleep

Fatigue can have very real consequences on your quality of sleep.

For example:

On waking you feel unusually stiff with almost flu-like symptoms
Your sleep is restless and you wake often
You do not feel well rested after sleep; sleep is no-longer refreshing
You are constantly sleepy during your waking hours

More severe symptoms of fatigue/chronic fatigue can include:

muscle or joint pain
headaches
a sore throat or sore glands that are not swollen
flu-like symptoms
feeling sick or dizzy
fast or irregular heartbeats (heart palpitations)

This may lead to a difficulty moving and carrying out your usual daily activities and impact your ability to work at all.

Useful links with external agencies

The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives has done a lot of research on managing fatigue and the impact fatigue has on both drivers and staff and the public that they come into contact with.

See the below links to some of the work and support provided to staff that we believe is of help to our members too.

Fatigue & Sleep Deprivation Guidance – The BMA

Case Study: Fatigue Related Ambulance RTC – College of Paramedics

Top Tips on Managing Sleep & Shiftwork

Shiftwork in Healthcare – NHS Employers

Monitoring & Optimising Sleep – Monash University

Optimising Sleep for Nigh Shifts – The BMJ

Supporting the Wellbeing of Shift Workers in Healthcare – The NHS Staff Council

Practical Tips for Shift Workers – The Sleep Charity

Fatigue Tool – EEAST & Association of Anaesthetists

Working Well at Night – EEAST & Association of Anaesthetists

Other useful sites pointed to