Fatigue is a human factor that progressively degrades cognitive speed and capabilities to recognize and respond appropriately to situations demanding immediate action.1 Critical incident investigations in many industries have found fatigue a contributing human factor to the event.2
Individuals experiencing significant fatigue have impaired executive functions and will over-estimate their ability to effectively perform their job tasks. Fatigue commonly arises from acute, chronic or accumulating sleep deficits. Intense involvement in high cognitive demand tasks, intense emotions and hard work also cause fatigue. Personal medical conditions or those in a bed partner (such as sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, periodic leg movement and insomnia as well as select medications and alcohol) may degrade sleep quality, increasing sleep debt. The potential 24/7/365-day nature of operating rooms (O.R.s) places anesthesiologists, surgeons, O.R. staff and our patients at risk for fatigue-related misadventures.3 Preventing and minimizing fatigue-related insults to our performance permits...