Influence of Shift Work on the Quality of Life of Intensive Care Nurses: Scoping Review

Abstract

This review aimed to identify the implications of shift work in the context of intensive care on the quality of life of nursing professionals, more specifically, to determine the factors, biological or social, affected by the condition of rotating schedules and how these factors interfere with the professional's quality of life. A Scoping Review (SR) was developed based on a research question that guided the research in three databases, using the descriptors "DeCS" and "MeSH"; and taking into account the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After applying these criteria and corresponding assessment of the quality of the studies, a final sample of 4 articles was obtained. After the global analysis of the articles, it was possible to verify that shift work directly affects five dimensions of the quality of life of the Intensive Care nursing professional, namely sleep, cognitive efficiency, socialization, emotional health and mental health. Thus, it was found that nurses who work the night shift are predisposed to poorer sleep quality and a higher level of fatigue at the end of the shift, thus increasing the likelihood of errors occurring when providing care.