FairShare evidence summary
Effect of sleep deprivation after a night shift duty on simulated crisis management by residents in anaesthesia. A randomised crossover study
Original source published:
The bottom line
When the same residents managed identical simulated emergencies rested and sleep-deprived, deprivation alone made their crisis performance measurably worse — about as close to causal evidence on fatigue and clinical performance as ethics permit. Leaders should treat post-call performance impairment as established, not hypothetical, when designing schedules. Whether the effect size transfers from simulation to live care, and to attendings or CRNAs, remains untested.
What the source found
Randomized crossover trial in which anesthesia residents each managed two simulated patient emergencies — once rested, once sleep-deprived after a night shift; blinded observers scored sessions; sleep-deprived residents performed significantly worse in both scenarios; within-subject design isolates fatigue as cause.
Limitations and applicability
Simulation setting, not live operating room; single center; small sample; generalizability to CRNAs or attendings uncertain.
Population and setting
Anesthesia residents (France, single center)
Used in FairShare guides
About this evidence
Research question / practical issue
How does this source inform Break Relief, Fatigue, and Safe Handoffs for the population it studied?
Study design, evidence tier, and source class
Peer Reviewed Rct · primary source · evidence tier 1
Source type: Peer Reviewed Rct · primary · Evidence tier 1
Topics: Break Relief, Fatigue, and Safe Handoffs
Audience: Residents, Anesthesiologists