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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/aug/10/crashed-car-after-night-shift-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-nurses-doctors
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| 'I crashed my car after a night shift and now have post-traumatic stress disorder' | 'I crashed my car after a night shift and now have post-traumatic stress disorder' |
| (14 days later) | |
| Last month, the Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network published an article about the dangers of doctors driving home after working nights. Two in five UK doctors (41%) have fallen asleep at the wheel after a night shift, according to an online survey of 1,135 doctors from Doctors.net.uk. | Last month, the Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network published an article about the dangers of doctors driving home after working nights. Two in five UK doctors (41%) have fallen asleep at the wheel after a night shift, according to an online survey of 1,135 doctors from Doctors.net.uk. |
| Within hours of publication, the network was flooded with emails, tweets and comments below the line and on Facebook from various healthcare professionals who wanted to share their thoughts and experiences. Here are some of them: | Within hours of publication, the network was flooded with emails, tweets and comments below the line and on Facebook from various healthcare professionals who wanted to share their thoughts and experiences. Here are some of them: |
| I crashed my car after a night shift and now have post-traumatic stress disorder | I crashed my car after a night shift and now have post-traumatic stress disorder |
| Back in 2005, I was an FY2 doctor in orthopaedics. Like most junior doctors even today, we would do seven night shifts in a row. Sleeping during nights (even if you had a chance) was frowned upon. When I started foundation training, there was a doctors’ office which had a bed but it was removed by the management in front of us. They insisted that junior doctors should never sleep during their night shifts and if they did have a free moment they should be doing discharge summaries etc. | Back in 2005, I was an FY2 doctor in orthopaedics. Like most junior doctors even today, we would do seven night shifts in a row. Sleeping during nights (even if you had a chance) was frowned upon. When I started foundation training, there was a doctors’ office which had a bed but it was removed by the management in front of us. They insisted that junior doctors should never sleep during their night shifts and if they did have a free moment they should be doing discharge summaries etc. |
| One Wednesday morning after I had worked five, 12-hour night shifts and had two more to go, I managed to get home and caught a few hours’ sleep. I woke up at around 12pm and decided to drive to the shops. Once on the main road, I quickly began to feel very tired and disorientated. I turned around to head home, but at a major roundabout suddenly crashed into a car. I am convinced that more than 60 hours of night work were behind the accident that day and still feel incredibly lucky that I did not kill anyone that day or get killed myself. | One Wednesday morning after I had worked five, 12-hour night shifts and had two more to go, I managed to get home and caught a few hours’ sleep. I woke up at around 12pm and decided to drive to the shops. Once on the main road, I quickly began to feel very tired and disorientated. I turned around to head home, but at a major roundabout suddenly crashed into a car. I am convinced that more than 60 hours of night work were behind the accident that day and still feel incredibly lucky that I did not kill anyone that day or get killed myself. |
| The NHS is destroying its staff, sometimes literally by the accidents from driving home so tired. | The NHS is destroying its staff, sometimes literally by the accidents from driving home so tired. |
| As a result, I have post-traumatic stress disorder related to driving. I am so terrified of driving post-nights that I only live within walking distance of hospitals and walk home after every shift. I dare not apply for jobs that involve a commute of any kind and hence I am stuck in non-training jobs. | As a result, I have post-traumatic stress disorder related to driving. I am so terrified of driving post-nights that I only live within walking distance of hospitals and walk home after every shift. I dare not apply for jobs that involve a commute of any kind and hence I am stuck in non-training jobs. |
| I fully understand that night shifts and night work is an integral part of my job but it does not have to be so hard or so difficult to provide us with on-call rooms or a reduced number of shifts. I will be 37 soon and I am still doing blocks of three or four very intense nights shifts. My body, my spirit and my life are feeling the pain. | I fully understand that night shifts and night work is an integral part of my job but it does not have to be so hard or so difficult to provide us with on-call rooms or a reduced number of shifts. I will be 37 soon and I am still doing blocks of three or four very intense nights shifts. My body, my spirit and my life are feeling the pain. |
| Dr Hunniya Waseem, senior clinical fellow, emergency medicine, Bury St Edmunds | Dr Hunniya Waseem, senior clinical fellow, emergency medicine, Bury St Edmunds |
| Nurses are not allowed to sleep on their breaks – it is a sackable offence | Nurses are not allowed to sleep on their breaks – it is a sackable offence |
| I have fallen asleep at the wheel after working a night shift. I have been a nurse for 10 years and this has happened to me on quite a few occasions. | I have fallen asleep at the wheel after working a night shift. I have been a nurse for 10 years and this has happened to me on quite a few occasions. |
| Nurses are not allowed to sleep on their breaks – it is a sackable offence if they are caught. I spent almost five years working in emergency medicine and the shifts are tough. We often go without food and drink for the entire shift. | Nurses are not allowed to sleep on their breaks – it is a sackable offence if they are caught. I spent almost five years working in emergency medicine and the shifts are tough. We often go without food and drink for the entire shift. |
| I once worked a shift where I had three patients suffer a cardiac arrest in one night. The first was an elderly gentleman; I hadn’t even been told his name before he arrested. He survived. The second was a man in his late 70s who we expected to pass away. The third was the toughest; it was a man in his 30s who had alcoholic liver disease. He arrested at 6.55am, just before the day staff came on. I was working with an agency nurse because we were short staffed. We worked on him for 90 minutes. I left the hospital at 9am after starting at 7pm the evening before. | I once worked a shift where I had three patients suffer a cardiac arrest in one night. The first was an elderly gentleman; I hadn’t even been told his name before he arrested. He survived. The second was a man in his late 70s who we expected to pass away. The third was the toughest; it was a man in his 30s who had alcoholic liver disease. He arrested at 6.55am, just before the day staff came on. I was working with an agency nurse because we were short staffed. We worked on him for 90 minutes. I left the hospital at 9am after starting at 7pm the evening before. |
| That morning there had been two major accidents on the roads. It took me two hours to do a 20-minute journey. The traffic was going at a snail’s pace and I fell asleep multiple times that morning in the car. It was midday by the time I got home, showered, reflected on my horrific shift in order to rest properly and crawled into bed. My alarm went off five hours later to do it all again. | That morning there had been two major accidents on the roads. It took me two hours to do a 20-minute journey. The traffic was going at a snail’s pace and I fell asleep multiple times that morning in the car. It was midday by the time I got home, showered, reflected on my horrific shift in order to rest properly and crawled into bed. My alarm went off five hours later to do it all again. |
| Anonymous | Anonymous |
| Sometimes I wonder how I’m still alive – who looks after NHS employees? | Sometimes I wonder how I’m still alive – who looks after NHS employees? |
| I am a mental health nurse who has worked within the NHS since 2003. Sometimes I wonder how I’m still alive. | I am a mental health nurse who has worked within the NHS since 2003. Sometimes I wonder how I’m still alive. |
| In the morning, at about 5am when I’m about to finish my shift, I find it very difficult to keep my eyes open or concentrate enough to even have a conversation with my colleagues. | In the morning, at about 5am when I’m about to finish my shift, I find it very difficult to keep my eyes open or concentrate enough to even have a conversation with my colleagues. |
| My concern is when you finish at 5pm, and then get a call immediately from A&E. We cover a big area and I have to go out and assess the patient within four hours. Then you get another call from another A&E, and then another. Sometimes I’m almost home by midnight and get another call. | My concern is when you finish at 5pm, and then get a call immediately from A&E. We cover a big area and I have to go out and assess the patient within four hours. Then you get another call from another A&E, and then another. Sometimes I’m almost home by midnight and get another call. |
| Something really needs to be done about this. It’s dangerous for anyone to drive while tired, and I know some people would say, park and rest. At that time of the night/morning, where does one park and rest? | Something really needs to be done about this. It’s dangerous for anyone to drive while tired, and I know some people would say, park and rest. At that time of the night/morning, where does one park and rest? |
| The NHS is destroying its staff, sometimes literally by the accidents from driving home so tired. Who looks after NHS employees, because the NHS certainly doesn’t? | The NHS is destroying its staff, sometimes literally by the accidents from driving home so tired. Who looks after NHS employees, because the NHS certainly doesn’t? |
| Mental health nurse, West Yorkshire | Mental health nurse, West Yorkshire |
| I fell asleep at the wheel and was woken up by the car running out of petrol | I fell asleep at the wheel and was woken up by the car running out of petrol |
| I fell asleep at the wheel once as a student nurse coming home from a particularly difficult night shift at my placement hospital 30 miles from home. I was lucky as it could only have been for a minute before I got shaken awake by the car running out of petrol as I’d not been able to afford to fill it up on my way in. I sat on the hard shoulder and cried for a good hour until the police came along and knocked on my window. Luckily for me one of the kindest policemen I’ve ever met went and bought me a fiver’s worth of petrol and then followed me home to make sure I got there safely. | I fell asleep at the wheel once as a student nurse coming home from a particularly difficult night shift at my placement hospital 30 miles from home. I was lucky as it could only have been for a minute before I got shaken awake by the car running out of petrol as I’d not been able to afford to fill it up on my way in. I sat on the hard shoulder and cried for a good hour until the police came along and knocked on my window. Luckily for me one of the kindest policemen I’ve ever met went and bought me a fiver’s worth of petrol and then followed me home to make sure I got there safely. |
| Anonymous nurse | Anonymous nurse |
| It’s not fair for the doctors or their patients | It’s not fair for the doctors or their patients |
| Some hospitals still let you rest but some are militant against any sleeping (often the nurses get it worse than us). As a more experienced junior doctor now, I know my decisions around clinical care and my safety on the journey home require me to have some sleep. Even if that’s just 20 minutes, the difference is vital. | Some hospitals still let you rest but some are militant against any sleeping (often the nurses get it worse than us). As a more experienced junior doctor now, I know my decisions around clinical care and my safety on the journey home require me to have some sleep. Even if that’s just 20 minutes, the difference is vital. |
| I have been a qualified doctor for three years. Last year my commute was 10 miles down winding country lanes and after a series of seven consecutive night shifts (totalling a 90-hour week) I crashed my car into a brick wall outside my house. Fortunately the damage was only material. | I have been a qualified doctor for three years. Last year my commute was 10 miles down winding country lanes and after a series of seven consecutive night shifts (totalling a 90-hour week) I crashed my car into a brick wall outside my house. Fortunately the damage was only material. |
| My hospital didn’t provide rest facilities after a night shift so when I finished my medical shifts at 10-11 am I would have to decide whether to risk driving home or sleep in our communal staff room where my day-time colleagues would be taking their breaks. There is no dignity in this. It is not safe and it is not fair to the doctors forced to make these decisions or to the patients they are treating half an hour earlier. | My hospital didn’t provide rest facilities after a night shift so when I finished my medical shifts at 10-11 am I would have to decide whether to risk driving home or sleep in our communal staff room where my day-time colleagues would be taking their breaks. There is no dignity in this. It is not safe and it is not fair to the doctors forced to make these decisions or to the patients they are treating half an hour earlier. |
| We are doctors, we are humans and our first priority is all too often our patients. Sometimes we need an advocate to protect our interests and safety and this is sadly lacking. | We are doctors, we are humans and our first priority is all too often our patients. Sometimes we need an advocate to protect our interests and safety and this is sadly lacking. |
| Jenny Worrall, doctor | Jenny Worrall, doctor |
| Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views. | Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views. |
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