Towards Understanding Liminal Fatigue in Nursing

Abstract

While acute and chronic fatigue have been studied extensively in nursing (a profession especially prone to fatigue, with implications for patient safety), the accumulation of fatigue beyond acute has not been wellstudied, nor have studies researched when chronic fatigue begins, or how they contribute to burnout. This paper frames this transitional category as a novel construct called liminal fatigue. We present a narrative literature review to ground this construct which may aid future methods to identify and mitigate fatigue accumulation contributing to chronic fatigue and burnout.