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Nurses’ workload associated with 16‐h night shifts on the 2‐shift system. I: Comparison with the 3‐shift system
Author(s) -
Fukuda Hideki,
Takahashi Masaya,
Airto Heihachiro
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1819.1999.00544.x
Subject(s) - workload , evening , nap , heart rate , medicine , nursing staff , shift work , audiology , physical therapy , psychology , nursing , psychiatry , computer science , physics , social psychology , blood pressure , astronomy , operating system
To assess nurses’ workload with 16‐h night shifts on a 2‐shift system, we investigated the differences between workloads with each shift on the 2‐ and 3‐shift systems with questionnaires on subjective symptoms and measuring heart rate and physical activity. It was found that the 2‐shift nurses during the 16‐h night shifts complained of fatigue less frequently and showed general decreases in heart rate and physical activity compared with the 3‐shift nurses during 8‐h evening and night shifts. The results suggest that a 2‐h nap, an increase of staff, and a day off may reduce the nurses’ workload when they have 16‐h night shifts.