• Interventions to reduce clinician fatigue and sleepiness due to long work hours have had mixed effects on the incidence of medical errors, patient mortality, and patient morbidity.
• Recent research has focused primarily on resident physicians, and to a lesser extent, nurses and practicing physicians.
• Interventions have focused primarily on work schedules, including limiting the number of hours worked in a shift or total over a week and ensuring adequate time for recovery between shifts.
• Few studies have addressed fatigue risk management interventions beyond scheduling, but interventions have included lighting, breaks, and scheduled napping.
• Barriers have included concerns about continuity of care and increased faculty clinical responsibilities arising from changes in resident duty hour limitations.
• Facilitators have included handoff training and hiring mid-level providers.
• No toolkits were identified to support implementation of interventions for reducing clinician fatigue and sleepiness due to long duty hours.

Rosen M, Kilcullen MP, Zhang A, Sharma R, Xiao C, Bass EB. Fatigue and Sleepiness of Clinicians Due to Hours of Service. Rapid Response. (Prepared by the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 75Q80120D00003). AHRQ Publication No. 23(24)-EHC019-14. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. May 2024. https://doi.org/10.23970/AHRQEPC_MHS4FATIGUE. Posted final reports are located on the Effective Health Care Program search page.