Fatigue Mitigation Plan: Identification of Dilemma

Fatigue Mitigation Plan
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Fatigue Mitigation Plan
Identification of Dilemma
The medical sector is continually changing as a result of the few numbers of healthcare providers, who are ethically held responsible by their professional bodies to deliver services for the interest of their patients. As the number of patient increases due to lifestyle and chronic diseases, nurse-patient ratio is greatly affected and the few available medical providers are expected to extend their working time beyond the stipulated working time frame. The dilemma results from the fact that although nurses are entitled to day-off, break and working for a certain period, their profession requires dedication and devotion to saving lives even when off-duty (Ellis, 2012). The situation has resulted in burnout and fatigue, whose consequences include increased medical errors, high turnout, and absenteeism. Nurses are overworked as a result of the changing nature of the medical environment and are placed in a difficult situation on choosing to take rest as part of the labor rights or follow the professional requirement that legally hold them responsible for saving lives regardless of situations. The enticement to overtime benefits contributes to professional stress.
Alternatives for Fatigue mitigation plan
There are various alternatives for dealing with fatigue in healthcare. The alternatives are divided into system-level, individual-level and organization-level responsibilities. In a nutshell, the alternatives entail the assessment of fatigue-related risks to give solution through off-shift staffing and consecutive shifts. The healthcare facility's leadership has the key role of creating and implementing employee alertness management strategy (RNAO, 2011). The other solution to fatigue on health care is through the provision of non-punitive opportunities for health care providers to raise their concern and their opinions about fatigue mitigation. Such a platform is not available in most healthcare facilities as a result of constraint nursing autonomy. Fatigue can also be mitigated through the aspect of encouraging teamwork so that staff supports each other when there is a lot of work. The other strategy is the development of internal systems for monitoring and reporting fatigue levels among nurses.
The main plan is the use of:
Organization-based fatigue mitigation
Healthcare organizations are the key parties affected by nursing fatigue in the form of organizational reputation when fatigue-based errors trigger deaths and poor quality of healthcare. Therefore, healthcare organizations should take the primary responsibility for reducing fatigue through the establishment of fatigue management policies and programs (Barker & Nussbaum, 2011). All healthcare organizations have the mandate of ensuring that all the healthcare personnel uphold th...