The fact that night work is unhealthy is hopefully not new to you as a reader of this magazine. Complicated relationships such as the risk of (breast) cancer are not clear-cut and require further research. However, a strong link has now been shown between night work and cardiovascular disorders, type 2 diabetes mellitus and – perhaps most obviously – sleeping problems. The latter group can also include possible concentration and alertness problems during the day or during the shift. Best link, not only on the work floor, but also on the way home.
For this reason, the NVAB is campaigning to denounce the obvious nature of night work. And where night work is really unavoidable, to look at possibilities to limit night work or options to control the adverse consequences as well as possible.
If you ever work night shifts, can you say yes to the question of whether sufficient attention is paid to the scope and risks? How well do you take care of yourself and how well are you taken care of by your employer? Is it leaking at the plumber’s house? In an earlier column (MC 41/2022: 41) I argued that we should embrace the Working Conditions Act in order for the Integral Care Agreement to succeed. To prevent scarce staff from sitting at home sick or running away screaming. Being able to carry out your work in a healthy and safe manner is something I would like to put a whole number of places higher on the priority list of the board and management.
Being able to perform your work in a healthy and safe way is a number of places higher on my list of priorities
Based on the inevitability of night work in many places in healthcare, a survey of fellow occupational physicians shows that healthcare employees are reasonably aware of sleep hygiene advice and that it is often – fortunately – well organized with regard to limiting the adverse effects. This includes forward rotating scheduling (day, evening, night), not too many consecutive night shifts and a regular pattern. At least, on paper. Practice is unruly as a result of the same pressure on healthcare that much has been said and written about before. What if a colleague is ill? Who’s filling in? Swap a shift? The risks of a combination of a poorly arranged duty roster with a towering workload and a great sense of responsibility among employees in the healthcare sector are easy to guess.
Healthy night work does not exist. The fact that night work is sometimes unavoidable does not mean that we should not address each other to deal with this as best we can. And at all we could have a conversation more often about how we work healthier and safer with each other.