Prioritize Sleep as if Your Life Depends on It—Because It Might

Fluctuating shifts, a fast-paced work environment, and generally high stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic can conspire to make sleepless nights an all-too-common occurrence for urgent care professionals. There could be much higher consequences than next-day sluggishness and bags under your eyes, though. New research just published by BMJ Nutrition, Prevention, and Health reveals that clinicians who are frequently exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and who experience difficulty sleeping at night or poor sleep continuity, or who use sleeping pills often, are at twice the risk for infection compared with those who do not have those sleep issues. Drawn from a survey of nearly 2,900 clinicians, the article notes that risk for infection is lowered by 12% for every additional hour of sleep. Burnout also increased risk for COVID-19 infection, longer disease duration, and risk for severe disease with the virus. JUCM has published a number of articles on the effects of burnout, but one in particular may be helpful in helping team members avoid its consequences. You can read  Provider Burnout Is Real; Show Compassion for Yourself in our archive right now. To peruse the entire collection of burnout-related content, click here.