The effect of shift work systems on nurses' physical and psychological well-being

Abstract

Shift work is an important source of disturbances to the health and well-being of nurses. However, nursing services must be available on 24-hour per day considering patients in the hospital need continuous health care making rotating shift work is common and necessary for nurses. In this study, the effect of shift work systems on nurses’ physical and psychological well-being such as sleep quality, functional gastrointestinal disorders, fatigue, anxiety and depression were examined in a sample of nurses (n = 303) as well as to compare of such effect. The questionnaire used for data collection consists of sleep quality which assessed by Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire (KSQ) and functional gastrointestinal disorders which employed the Gastrointestinal Symptoms Questionnaire. Meanwhile, fatigue was evaluated by Fatigue Questionnaire (FQ) and anxiety and depression was measured by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The results from simple linear regression indicate that rotating shift work has a negative significant effect on sleep quality, functional gastrointestinal disorders, fatigue and anxiety compared to non-shift work but there is no significant effect on depression. Besides, the implications and recommendations of this study were also discussed.