The Association of Anaesthetists, Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) have come together to start a national conversation about the impact of fatigue and shift working on the NHS workforce (UK).

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EUPSF then initiated a collaborative campaign to accelerate change by sharing the experience and tools from the UK campaign across Europe. In collaboration with organisations representing healthcare professionals, patients, academia, hospitals and industry, we want to raise awareness of the risks of fatigue and its impact on health and performance. Together we are able to take into account the specific context of each country and finding ways to make EVERYONE feel concerned.

 

Already in the 2017 the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report revealed the 51% burn-out rate among US physicians (25% increase since 2013). The 2019 report by Medscape on Global Physicians’ Burnout and Lifestyle Comparisons which surveyed almost 20,000 doctors in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States revealed that between 36 % to 51 % are being burn-out or depressed.

 

According to the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis about the Influence of Burnout on Patient Safety (Garcia, et al.)  the presence of burnout among health professionals is associated with worsening patient safety. 

 

The term second victim was introduced by Albert Wu in 2000 describing a doctor being traumatised due to his or her own medical error but in 2009 Susan Scott and colleagues expanded this term and now the second victim describes any health care professional who's traumatised by an unanticipated adverse patient event regardless whether it was caused by medical errors or not.

 

Joy is a resource for excelence.  The most joyful, productive, engaged staff feel both physically and psychologically safe, appreciate the meaning and purpose of their work, have some choice and control over their time, experience camaraderie with others at work, and perceive their work life to be fair and equitable.

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The IHI Framework for IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work describes the following:

• The importance of joy in work (the “why”);

• Four steps leaders can take to improve joy in work (the “how”);

• Nine critical components of a system for ensuring a joyful, engaged workforce (the “what”);

• Key change ideas for improving joy in work, along with examples from organizations that helped test them; and

• Measurement and assessment tools for gauging efforts to improve joy in work.

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Resilience is a dynamic capability which can allow people to thrive on challenges given appropriate social and personal contexts.

The dimensions of resilience (which include self‐efficacy, self‐control, ability to engage support and help, learning from difficulties, and persistence despite blocks to progress) are all recognised as qualities that are important in clinical leaders (Howe A, Smajdor A, Stöckl A. Towards an understanding of resilience and its relevance to medical training).