Exhausted nurses bringing sleeping bags in their cars to nap after shifts

INMO midwives section chair Lynda Moore told the conference: “Each of us knows people going home from night duty who have crashed their cars, who’ve had quite a serious accident.”

Nurses and midwives are so tired after working in short-staffed units that some are even bringing sleeping bags in their cars so they can nap on the way home.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s conference in Killarney has been told of fatal crashes happening because staff are battling extreme tiredness after working long shifts.