Welcome to the Nurse & Midwife Support newsletter. In this issue we’re talking about how to beat fatigue in nursing and midwifery.
At last year’s Australian College of Nursing (ACN)’s National Nursing Forum, we spoke to a nurse who said she enjoyed our newsletters. We asked if there was a topic she would like us to explore, and she replied fatigue. It wasn’t surprising. This is an issue nurses and midwives often call us to talk about. The disruption we’ve all experienced in recent years has only heightened feelings of exhaustion.
ACN research published in 2022 found that two-thirds of nurses had experienced fatigue and/or burnout. A 2022 study found similar rates in midwives. The high rates of fatigue are not surprising given the extreme stress and disruptive schedules common in these professions. Unfortunately, fatigue is associated with high turnover rates. Collectively, we need to learn how to manage and prevent exhaustion to maintain the health of our selves and our workforce.
Fatigue can undermine your connection to others, capacity for joy and healthy sleep patterns. There’s no single silver bullet solution that will work for everybody, but there are a lot of different strategies you can try to tackle fatigue and support yourself to increase your energy.
A 2024 qualitative study of shiftworkers found that common recommendations to deal with fatigue included both personal and structural changes. In this newsletter, we’ll look at some of the changes you can make in your personal routine to improve your rest and manage exhaustion, but we also want to emphasise that we know that shift workers need to be supported by employers to maximise their health and wellbeing. As the authors of the study concluded:
“This study identified that there is insufficient training regarding sleep and shift work management strategies, potentially leading to occupational health and safety concerns. Further education and training to equip staff with the necessary information, training and guidance to staff on how to reduce fatigue risk is required.” — Booker et al, Sleep fatigue and management strategies: How nurses, midwives and paramedics cope with their shift work schedules — a qualitative study
We encourage employers to identify opportunities to help their workforce to manage exhaustion and implement policies that prevent fatigue. If your employer has a program or policy you find helpful, let us know — email [email protected].
So what can you do to prevent and treat fatigue in your own life? We have some ideas