Shift work Effects on nurses’ health
Abstract
he human organism is characterized by its “biological clock” or else its biological rhythm which determines its function. In health care the demands for a 24-hour nursing care requires the nursing personnel to work on a rotating shift system. People working on a night shift system are forced to suspend their biological 24-hour rhythm set by the brain. The result of this disorganization is the so-called “jet-lag” syndrome or in our case the “shift-lag” syndrome. Aim: The aim of the present research study was to study the effects of the rotating shift system on the nursing personnel’s health. MATERIAL-Method: The compilation of data was performed with the aid of the Survey of Shiftworkers (SOS) questionaire, adapted to the needs of this study. It was distributed to 154 nurses of a General Peripheral Hospital of Attica who work on a rotating system. Results: The response rate was that of 53.8%. People with more years of experience consider the night shift workload more “heavy” (P=0.001). The number of night shifts affects the domestic (P=0.002) and social life (P=0.004) of nurses, while physical ailments such as back and neck aches are often present (P=0.047). The amount of sleep between two night shifts is not enough for the personnel to rest, whereas several shiftworkers suffer from sleeplessness on their days off duty (P=0.006) as well as between two afternoon shifts (P=0.027). The amount of sleep in all shifts is interwoven with its quality (P<0.05), with the exception of the afternoon-tomorning shift. Finally, the number of successive night shifts and the total number of night shifts during the 12- week period were not statistically correlated neither to the amount of sleep between night shifts and days off nor to the nurses’ health. Conclusions: The main conclusion refers the significance of the effects on nursing staff who work on a rotating system and night shifts. Those effects do not occur explicitely but indirectly, through changes on the amount and quality of sleep. Therefore, better planning of shifts is essential.
