Staffing shortages among professionals in specialized health care and clinical situations that demand around-the-clock care make it challenging to address staff member fatigue. Many industries have developed restrictions on work hours to help reduce the effects of fatigue on safety. The perioperative specialty, however, often requires personnel to work long hours, offers limited resources for specialized professionals, and employs on-call schedules that can be demanding. This article discusses research and additional information related to fatigue and how it can affect perioperative patient care. It also describes how one group of nursing staff members developed tools to help identify and respond to perioperative staff member fatigue.
The 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, continues to be the most-viewed report in IOM history. Nearly three years after its publication, there are action coalitions of nursing and non-nursing agencies in 50 states and the District of Columbia collaborating to move the eight recommendations for action forward. There is much work to do to reshape health care delivery in the United States, and the IOM has identified nurses as key leaders in driving the reform. Every nurse must be educated on the key messages of the IOM report and become involved in moving these recommendations forward as well as in educating others on what needs to be done. AORN and perioperative nurses have a key role in voicing the unique needs of perioperative patients and in ensuring that perioperative patient care is represented in reform activities.
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