A great place to start when creating fatigue awareness intervention programs is with the Joint Commission monograph, Improving Patient and Worker Safety, which is mentioned in "The Joint Commission Addresses Health Care Worker Fatigue" (In the News, July).

As nurses, we understand the importance of patient safety but often forget that we need to care for ourselves in order to properly care for our patients. It's imperative that nurse leaders work together with the nurses providing direct care to address this issue, so that each feels a sense of accountability in bringing about a solution.

The hospital I work for holds an annual skills and education day in which those involved in direct patient care participate in refresher courses focusing on the skills we use every day. Perhaps nurse fatigue and its effects could be minimized if fatigue awareness interventions were included in this type of training.

Joely Keen, BSN, RN

The Woodlands, TX