ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify sleep patterns, alertness, and fatigue of shift nurses according to circadian types. METHODS: The researchers' enrolled 17 nurses doing shift work in a tertiary hospital. To evaluate circadian types, a morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) was administered. Sleep patterns were examined using an actigraph for 14 days. To assess alertness and fatigue, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test with a SPSS 21.0 program. RESULTS: The researchers found that 17.6% of participants reported morning type, 47.1% neither type, and 35.3% evening type. Mean total sleep time (TST) was 6.8 h, mean sleep efficacy was 82%, level of alertness was 6.54, and level of fatigue was 5.49, regardless of the type of shift work. Evening type nurses had higher variation in TST and alertness, according to the shift patterns than other circadian type nurses. Evening type nurses also had higher fatigue levels than other circadian type nurses. CONCLUSION: Sleep, alertness, and fatigue were related with circadian types. These results suggest that circadian rhythm management in shift work nurses, particularly in evening type nurses is urgently needed to improve sleep patterns, alertness, and to decrease the level of fatigue.
Subject(s)
Asthenopia , Circadian Rhythm , Fatigue , Tertiary Care CentersABSTRACT
Introduction: The researchers have identified that shift work of nurses can have a direct impact on health, well-being, performance, and organizational outcomes. In countries with self sustainable and highly developed nursing science it was established that shift duration of hospital nurses lasts for 8 hours, (Gordon, Cleary, Parker, & Czeisler, 1986; Labyak, 2002; Lee, 1992). Thus, it was recognized having importance that day and night shift nurses would have health issues depending on the shift work schedule and it seemed inevitable to perform studies on schedule work performance. Goal: The purpose of the study is to identify impacts on the health of night shift nurses, and identification of strengths and weaknesses of night shift work of nursesObjectives:1. To identify the initiative and work load of shift nurses,2. To identify the impact of shift work to health of shift nurses,3. To identify the strength and weaknesses of shift workMaterials and Methods: The research was performed on the basis of using Questionnaire, Focus group discussion and Checklists. Comparative research was done on the basis of P criteria; P if < Î.05 then it was estimated that possibility is correct. The research was performed through using software such as EXCEL 2007, SPSS.Results: The results of the research and studies are revealed that 28.3% of participants complained about fatigue, 22.5% of participants complained about having sleep disorder, 16.7 % of participants complained about having headaches, while according to the japans studies 21% of participants complained about fatigue, 29% of participants complained about having sleep disorder, 16% of participants complained about having backaches. Conclusions:1. The active conscience of shift nurses were studied and it was concluded that night shift nurses are less active (40%), and experiencing fatigue (53.3%) than day shift nurses. Also, it was observed that 53.3% of participants experienced heavy work load at day shift, while 41.7% of participants in the study experienced high load of work during night shift.2. The studies revealed that 73.35 of night shift nurses are experiencing fatigue, aches, have sleep disorder, headaches, foot aches, and stomachaches. Performing statistical comparison it was revealed that fatigue, aches, have sleep disorder had statistical probability at p< 0.05.3. The strength of night shift is in higher pay rate, which is higher than regular salary rate answered 75 % of participants, day off is longer answered 62.5 % of participants, while 69.2 % of participants answered that are experiencing general fatigue and 56.2 % of participants are having digestion problems.