NIOSH Training for Nurses on Shift Work and Long Work Hours

Strategies to Cope with High Demands from Work and Home (Continued)

4. Implement the plan to improve the demands on you.

Before making changes, assess and record how you are doing by noting your mood and filling out the sleepiness scale and sleep diary for about a week. Note how much of a problem sleepiness and fatigue are at that point. You may want to record other factors you think are important, such as negative interactions with family and any mistakes or near misses you made. This would give you a baseline for how you were doing before the change.

Click to open the Sleep Diary [PDF – 46 KB]

Click to open the Epworth Sleepiness Scale [PDF – 23 KB]

If you determined you need to change some parts of your home life, have a discussion with your family and/or important friends about

• your assessment of the demands on your time and how this has been too stressful for you
• what factors cannot be easily changed, such as your work hours, and the impact this has on the time you have available for the family and important people in your life
• the benefits you and your family or closest friends get from your job
• what you need to do to be able to safely and effectively perform the work
• what to do if the work hours are not a good fit for you or the important people in your life.