HAZARD ID AND RISK ASSESSMENT

 Fatigue can be task-related or sleep-related.

Task-related fatigue, whether physical or cognitive, is typically short term (acute) and we should be able to recover over the course of a good night’s rest. But what happens when the sleep you need doesn’t happen?

Sleep-related fatigue is a result inadequate restorative sleep, leading to decreased capacity to perform mental or physical work, and with lowered emotional tolerances. In this case, fatigue will continue to build in the body over time, until restorative sleep is achieved.

You heard correctly. Only sleep eliminates fatigue, nothing else.

Aside from the demands of the job, fatigue is also influenced by time of day factors and prior wakefulness. Personal factors such as health conditions can also affect fatigue and sleep recovery.

By following a fatigue incident trajectory, Solaris will identify and assess for organizational fatigue related hazards and their risk levels. This may include using a variety of scientific tools (e.g. biomathematical modeling software, eye gaze monitoring), wearable technologies (e.g. actigraphy) and proven techniques (e.g. fatigue matrices, performance impairment checklists) to evaluate for fatigue impacts relative to:

• Shift schedule designs including call outs and extra work assignments
• Commuting and journey management practices
• Workload and work design
• Environmental fatigue factors
• Fatigue self-assessment and reporting practices
• Health screening practices
• Shift handover procedures
• Break facilities and recovery opportunities
• Error and incident analysis

It is only through a thorough risk assessment process that appropriate mitigation strategies can be selected to prevent the occurrence of a fatigue related incident at work or during the commute to and from work.