Speaking at the Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety conference in August, Strahan said little research had been done to identify those aspects of individual functioning that made for effective coping with fatigue.
Fatigue risk at work arose from both workplace design and practice, as well as individual functioning, and was a result of the interaction between an individual and the workplace.
Strahan said: “We have wanted to avoid the position that workplace factors alone, or alternatively, individual coping alone are the sole explanation for safety outcomes at work.”
Potential workplace factors that might contribute to fatigue risk include hours of work, rosters, type of work and conditions. Individual factors include variations in coping with fatigue, lifestyle, hours of sleep, family support and others.
Strahan said the critical task of safety personnel was to identify aspects, in both the workplace and individual, which might increase the risk of fatigue-related incidents.
Strahan’s paper drew on data collected from questionnaires collected from 1651 people from nine Queensland industrial sites. He said the research indicated that there are different styles of coping with fatigue and that these are related to safety.
He differentiates between active coping and avoidant, or reactive, coping. People who used active coping strategies appear far better equipped to handle stress. These people planned and organised sleeping, rest times and work to avoid fatigue. Individuals who used reactive ways of coping were less likely to organise their life to avoid fatigue. They dealt with fatigue by seeking stimulation such as drinking coffee or taking cat-naps during crib time.
A key question in each study has been identifying how many people experienced a near-miss related to fatigue. A cluster analysis of the data identified three styles of coping with fatigue: preventative, reactive or no strategy. Among preventative copers 11.5% reported experiencing a fatigue-related near-miss in the previous month. Of those less likely to plan and organise their life to avoid fatigue 24.5% reported a fatigue-related near-miss. Among the third group, who were most likely to keep working even when really tired, 47.4% reported a fatigue-related near-miss.
“Clearly the no strategy group were more vulnerable to fatigue risk at work,” Strahan said.
Looking ahead, Strahan said the results pointed to things individuals could do to improve fatigue management.
Training programs in fatigue management should describe those methods of effective coping in contrast with the characteristics of ineffective coping. Selection procedures at mines could also be refined to target individuals (where necessary) who are better able to cope with fatigue.
“In those operations where shift-work is a part of the role description, the individual’s ability to cope with such rosters and shifts should be an important aspect of selection criteria.”
Strahan added that the results complement existing evidence that some rosters are more likely to generate an unacceptable degree of risk for a majority of people, in spite of their best coping efforts. This was particularly the case for people who worked extreme rosters.
