This study assessed sleep quality, sleepiness and use of workplace break opportunities in 1285 health-care workers via an online questionnaire. Two hospitals were surveyed - one with and one without a fatigue mitigation policy. Across all respondents, 68.9% reported generally taking breaks of at least 30 min and 21.7% had access to a quiet place to rest, with no significant differences between hospitals. The presence of a fatigue mitigation policy was not associated with reduced sleepiness. However, accounting for hospital and shift characteristics, employees with access to a quiet place to rest while on break had significantly lower self-reported sleepiness scores.
Keywords: Break policy; fatigue mitigation; rest breaks; shift work; working time arrangements.