The impact of swift work on Nurses’ personnel Health. Case study at a NHS Hospital of Athens

Introduction:  Employees involved in to work shiftwork are spread over many different sectors, especially in health care sector.  There is evidence in the scientific literature of the adverse physiological and psychological effects of shift work, including disruption to biological rhythm, sleep disorders, health problems, diminished performance at work, job dissatisfaction, and social isolation.

Aim: To identify the effect of swift work on nurses’ health.

Methodology: The study was synchronic and was conducted in a public hospital. The sample of the study was nurs ing staff (permanent and auxiliary) of all educational levels. Data was collected using Standard Shiftwork Index ques tionnaire. The significance levels are two sided and statistical significance was set at 0.05. SPSS 22.0 statistical program was used for analysis.

Results: The majority of participants were female (62.9%). The percentage of women who worked in shifts was higher than that of women who worked only morning shifts, without significant statistical difference (64.3% vs. 57.1%). The general health of the participants did not differ significantly according to their shift pattern (p=0.305), as well as in the symptoms of physical stress (p=0.260). Daytime nurses’ leisure time satisfaction was statistically significantly higher than “shift” nurses (p=0.003), who were significantly more inhibited from doing things in their free time (p<0.001). Dis engagement strategies have been reported more often in shift nurses versus daytime nurses (p=0.007). The “morning type” score was significantly higher in daytime nurses versus shift nurses, suggesting that they were more morning types (p<0.001). Nurses involved in to work shiftwork were more adaptive compared to daytime nurses (p=0.005).

Conclusions:  Shiftwork by itself was not found to be a risk factor for nurses’ general health, in this study, although working roundtheclock affected negatively their physical and mental health.