Healthcare organizations and sleep deprivation. Is adequate sleep still granted to healthcare workers?

Abstract

Modern-day healthcare organizations strive to provide sufficient protection to healthcare workers concerning their time of recovery sleep. Instead, the progressive reduction of staff, the problem of filling temporary vacancies and rotas, and the urgent requirements of oncalls put extra stress on healthcare workers who might borrow time from their sleep hours to stretch their working time. However, this organizational habit might impact on professional liability of healthcare workers who cannot get enough sleep while involuntarily making them more vulnerable to professional errors. The current article examines the theories that link productivity to working hours and recovery sleep in the healthcare services.