Purpose & Scope

Purpose:

This best practice guideline has been developed to identify and describe:

• practices that result in preventing and mitigating fatigue for nurses and other health-care professionals;
• system resources that support practices to prevent fatigue;
• organizational culture, values and resources that support effective practices to prevent fatigue;
• personal resources that can be used to prevent or mitigate fatigue; and
• anticipated outcomes when fatigue is effectively managed.

Scope:

This best practice guideline addresses:

• knowledge, competencies and behaviours that recognize, prevent and mitigate fatigue;
• educational requirements and strategies;
• policy changes at organizational and system levels needed to support and sustain practices that prevent and mitigate fatigue;
• implementation strategies and tools;
• evaluation criteria and tools; and
• future research opportunities.

Target Audience

This best practice guideline is relevant to nurses in:

• all roles, including clinical nurses, administrators, educators, researchers and those engaged in policy work;
• all domains of nursing (clinical practice, administration, education, research and policy), as well as nursing students; and all practice settings.

This best practice guideline will also be helpful for:

• interprofessional team members;
• non-nursing administrators at the unit, organizational and system levels;
• policymakers and governments;
• professional organizations, employers and labour groups; and
• federal, provincial and territorial standard-setting bodies.