HEALTH & WELLBEING ARE YOU FATIGUE-AWARE?
PFEW has launched an initiative to help officers counter the ill effects of fatigue and make forces realise and execute their legal responsibilities to protect employees. By Stavan Desai
Significant research by academics and health practitioners on the impact that shift working has on officers’ health has been undertaken. Fatigue is one area which is continually highlighted, owing to the disturbance caused by shift work to normal sleep patterns. It is too simplistic to say fatigue is just “being very tired”. The Health and Safety Executive defines the condition as the “decline in mental and/or physical performance that results from prolonged exertion, sleep loss or disruption of the internal clock”.
Explaining the ill effects of fatigue, PFEW National Board Member and Health and Safety Lead Mark Andrews
40 | POLICE | APRIL 2023
says: “As police officers, we need to be able to make sound decisions in alignment with the National Decision Making Model 2013, which encourages officers to act in accordance with the Code of Ethics and use their discretion where appropriate. “A lessening in this ability can have significant consequences for those we interact with, and for ourselves, when we get it wrong.”
Being fatigued may lead to:
• Reduction in our decision-making ability or cognitive processing.
• Increased errors in judgement.
• Increased tendency for risk-taking.
Studies have found that fatigue can affect our ability to communicate effectively, making us more irritable and less civil; and cause a decline in officers’ overall performance and ability to deal with the stress of the job. This could see a rise in conduct and unsatisfactory performance procedures and a reduction in their ability to deliver normal and excellent service. Mark says that disturbance to sleep
• Loss of memory or the ability to recall details.
patterns is not the only reason why officers are fatigued: “To really understand this, we need to consider the ability to sleep on rest days, the quality of sleep, and sleeping disorders. Other factors to be
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