The LNER Encyclopedia

A UK rail employee survey to explore the relationship between self-reported fatigue levels and characteristics of influential risk factors of workload, sleep quality and daily life events.

Dear Prospective Participant,

You are invited to take part in a short online questionnaire survey, which forms part of a Masters of Science in Ergonomics research project with the University of Derby Online Learning (UDOL), United Kingdom. The closing date for receipt of completed online surveys will be the 30th April 2018.

The aim of this research project is to explore the relationship between self-reported levels of fatigue and its characteristics (such as physical, mental, general and motivation) with three influential risk factors. These are workload, quality of sleep and daily life events, such as marriage and starting a new job.

Your response will remain completely confidential throughout the study. The survey is user friendly and easy to navigate through. It should take approximately 15 minutes to complete and submit it.
Please note that for ethical reasons as part of a Masters level research project, you must be aged 18 or over.
Thank you for your kind participation.

Simply click the following link to access the survey:

https://derby.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6SeGHbagKuHOuON



Lorna Brock

Miss Lorna Brock, MSc student at University of Derby Online (UDOL)
Email: l.brock2@unimail.derby.ac.uk

Supervisor:

Andrew Baird
Psychology
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby
DE22 1GB
Email: a.baird@derby.ac.uk
Office Tel: 00 44 (0)1332 593042

Lorna asked me for permission to post this survey. I commented that most of the railway workers we have on these forums are retired - she's only interested in present day workers.

These fatigue surveys have been going around periodically on Network Rail for maybe the last 10-12 years.

It doesn't even seem to be of any value to Railworkers but is only data gathering in connection with the hope of the award of an MSc. It could be applied to many other sectors and would probably do more social good if directed at workers in e.g. healthcare.

I can promise you that this type of assessment has been in use at least fifty years from direct knowledge, on a wide range of occupations. They have to be performed regularly because the next 'manager' in post believes that he or she can provide such inspirational annoydership that previous findings may be disregarded.

Hi,
Thank you for your messages regarding my fatigue survey. One of the purposes of the survey is of course to help me obtain my MSc in Ergonomics and Human Factors, but I have spent the last six months deciding upon this topic and research angle so I feel invested in it and would really love for it to result in some value to the rail industry. The reason I decided upon fatigue was because it is a hot topic across all safety critical industries and for the UK railway industry, there are still plenty of gaps surrounding current knowledge and understanding. You are quite right in saying that these sort of surveys have been around for a long time and there has been much research in the past on fatigue and rail and issues such as shiftwork. However, what I found with my review of current and past research was that there are significant gaps in knowledge as compared to other industries and other countries. My study aims to replicate the methodology used in a study last year which looked into fatigue in air traffic controllers. I hope that my findings can add to the knowledge base. RSSB carried out research last year on whether suitable fitness for duty checks existed within the rail industry and from their study they concluded that as yet there isn't a suitable one fit for purpose. If my study manages to obtain significant results then it could be useful in development of such tools. So far I have received a good response as I have also posted on the RailUKforum website. I am optimistic that I will get a high enough number for the results to be a representative sample of the UK railworker population. Thanks again for your posts and viewpoints. I will share the findings post August 2018 once my project has been completed.