What errors can cause fatigue among hospital staff?

Louisiana residents trust that hospitals will be there to help them in their time of need. However, accidents and mistakes can happen anywhere, especially in environments where the employees are tired and overworked. Here are some of the ways that fatigue can affect your hospital staff.

The American Nurses Association takes a look at nurse fatigue. Fatigue among nursing staff in hospitals is particularly profound, as they’re often working a large number of hours, sometimes with very few breaks. Hospitals can be short-staffed as well, forcing more nurses to take on longer shifts, or to take back-to-back shifts without many days to rest.

Unfortunately, when nurses or doctors are forced to work this hard without respite, mistakes may follow. Some common mistakes that occur due to tired nursing staff includes:

• Misreading or writing incorrect patient information
• Distributing the wrong type or dosage of medication
• Missing out on warning signs of infection or complication
• Misdiagnosis
• Mixing patients and their medications up

The range of issues that come from these mistakes range from the mildly inconvenient or even unnoticeable, all the way up to things that can potentially cause you injury or harm. Having a system of checks and balances can help to a degree, but this only goes so far if the entire staff is exhausted.

If you have been hurt by a mistake made by hospital staff due to exhaustion, overwork or negligence, you may be entitled to compensation. To obtain your compensation, you may wish to consider contacting an attorney for more information.