Focus Group Evaluation of Night Nurse Shiftwork Difficulties and Coping Strategies

Abstract

Focus group interviews were performed on 45 intensive care nurses who worked 12-h shifts in a large metropolitan hospital. The purpose of this study was to identify nurses' perceptions of difficulties associated with shiftwork and coping strategies used to combat them. Overall, the findings were not different than those currently discussed in the literature. For example, nurses frequently utilized white noise, telephone answering machines, and light-darkening shades to improve the quality and quantity of day sleep. They also used exercise and increased early shift caffeine consumption to improve night work performance. However, the major incentive for performing night work for these nurses was a high shift differential that equaled approximately 20% of their hourly salary. Most nurses also felt that group educational interventions regarding shiftwork difficulties and coping strategies would be preferred to individual counseling. The most significant finding of this study was the discovery of an extremely high incidence (95%) of automobile-related injuries and near-accidents that occurred while driving to and from the workplace, potentially posing a significant public health risk.

Sleep strategies of 12-hour shift nurses with emphasis on night sleep episodes

“…As expected, daytime sleep had a shorter duration than nighttime sleep on the days off, but its length depended on its position in the schedule. When there were several nights in a row, the length of the daytime sleep was shorter after the last night of work than after the first night; this finding confirmed the results of previous studies (7,16). This observation cannot be explained by an increasingly disturbed sleep during worknights because, when there was one worknight between two days off, the daytime sleep was shorter than the first daytime sleep in a row of several worknights.…”

Tiring job and work related injury road crashes in the GAZEL cohort

“…Physicians who worked more than 48 hours per week had five times the incidence of driving accidents doing house visits than their less timestressed colleagues. Similarly, among American nurses (Novak and Auvil-Novak, 1996) working 12 hour shifts was associated with an excess crash involvement during their commuting trips. Lastly, this was confirmed among house doctors in the United States (Barger et al, 2005) whose over long working hours lead to excess crash involvement.…”

Napping During Night Shift: Practices, Preferences, and Perceptions of Critical Care and Emergency Department Nurses

“…12 In another study of critical care nurses (N = 45), 95% of those who worked night shifts reported automobile-related injuries and near-accidents that occurred driving home following night shift. 44 …”