What started the campaign?
In 2015, Ronnie, a trainee anesthetist from the UK, lost his life while driving home exhausted after a night shift. His tragic death shed light on the consequences of fatigue among medical staff and sparked the national Fight Fatigue campaign in the UK in 2018.
Unfortunately, Ronnie’s tragic death isn’t an isolated case. Fatigue remains a silent killer among young medical professionals.
About the Joint Fatigue Group
The Joint Fatigue Working Group is a collaboration between the Association of Anaesthetists, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
It was established in 2018 and it's work is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the organisations with the overall aim being to support work which changes the culture around fatigue. The group has members from all 3 organisations and co-opted experts in the field.
Work of the group has included:
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Overseeing the #FightFatigue campaign, to raise awareness of the impact of staff fatigue on our work;
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Surveys of all groups of anaesthetists to describe the effects of fatigue;
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Producing resources to educate all healthcare workers around fatigue, its risks and how to mitigate these;
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Inclusion of questions in the GMC National Trainee and Trainer Survey to monitor progress;
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Setting standards for rest culture and facilities and development of a tool to audit these.
Five years of #FightFatigue in UK
For the past five years, this highly motivated team has been campaigning in the UK to raise awareness about the danger of fatigue and sleep deprivation, not only for health care workers, but also for patients. They have succeeded in encouraging many healthcare workers to protect themselves, but also in establishing rest facilities in hospitals and in alerting policy makers about the need to improvethe well-being of healthcare workers.
From national to European collaborative campaign
The European Patient Safety Foundation backed the UK campaign in 2021. With the help of the UK campaign team, the European Patient Safety Foundation initiated this collaborative campaign to accelerate change by sharing the experience and tools from the UK campaign across Europe.