What is our priority?
We need to act now and do what we can to protect health care workers and patients from the adverse effects of fatigue.
Everywhere in Europe, we want to encourage healthcare professionals to engage in a process of self-protection.
This requires the recognition of risky situations and the implementation of preventive measures such as having sufficient rest outside work, opportunities for rest at the workplace, and the healthiest possible lifestyle.
What is the change we aim for?
Healthcare workers' ability to act individually is very limited, as the fatigue is intimately linked to the nature and intensity of the work and the conditions in which it is performed.
Many changes can only be implemented if the need for rest is not acknowledged by health care institutions, guaranteed by appropriate working hours and conditions, including access to rest facilities.
Therefore, self-protective measures must be embedded into the wider ambition of impacting working culture, conditions and environments.
Ultimately, our aim is to achieve a sustainable and substantial improvement in the well-being of health professionals.
What are we going to do?
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 find ways to make EVERYONE feel concerned.
Together we want to implement tools and recommendations on how to manage fatigue and improve the well-being and safety of healthcare staff.
And together we can strive to go even further and advocate for more humane working conditions, allowing caregivers time to rest, time to grow and time to provide safe care for their patients.
How are we organised?
Our campaign is based on a multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaboration to reach as many health workers as possible.
The role of organisations operating at European level is to promote the campaign to as many national and local health organisations as possible and to help with the development of fatigue awareness and management tools.
The role of national or local organisations participating in the campaign is to adapt these tools to their national or local culture and disseminate them widely, in health care institutions.
Finally, we will also need the help of individuals to relay the campaign messages in health care institutions. This is why a large part of the campaign will consist of recruiting fatigue ambassadors and fatigue coaches,who will bring the campaign to life and lead change in fatigue management in their healthcare institutions.
Join us in Fighting Fatigue Together!
Is advocacy part of the plan?
Improving the working conditions of healthcare workers is the responsibility of policy makers and hospital management. However, health policies remain primarily regional and local, in contexts which are massively different in terms of legislation and culture, with fragmented healthcare systems.
The campaign aims to support the advocacy efforts of our partners in connection with fatigue and well-being of the healthcare professionals, to improve their working conditions.
The European campaign can give support in different ways:
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Documenting and giving more visibility to the impact of fatigue and well-being on the safety, quality and cost of care across Europe;
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Promoting the exchange of advocacy experiences (demands, strategies, results…) within a Europe-wide network;
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Providing the network with the opportunities to link their communication activities to a larger campaign.