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The myth of the mid‐day shift overlap
Author(s) -
HAWLEY C. A.,
STILWELL J. A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of nursing management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2834
pISSN - 0966-0429
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2834.1993.tb00186.x
Subject(s) - audit , pace , medicine , nursing staff , nursing , work (physics) , business , geography , accounting , mechanical engineering , geodesy , engineering
On hospital wards the period of the day when the early and late nursing shifts overlap has frequently been the focus of attention by those seeking to reduce costs. Recently the Audit Commission has recommended a reduction of the afternoon overlap period to one hour. As part of a wider study investigating the use of nursing resources in Wales this paper looks at 14 wards with shift overlap periods of differing lengths, from one hour to three and a half hours. The results indicate that the length of time when extra staff were on duty did not differ greatly between wards with long and short overlap periods. On wards with a ‘long’ overlap part‐time working and rostered halfdays frequently meant that extra staff were on duty for only a fraction of the ‘official’ overlap period. In fact with meal breaks to accommodate there were often fewer staff on the ward during the overlap period than during the rest of the day. Far from making time available for ‘extras’ and personal activities, during the overlap period the pattern of work usually continued unchanged from other times of the day. On wards with short overlap periods work continued at a rapid pace and opportunities for teaching learners, private study and care planning were lost. The results of this study suggest that on many wards with ‘long’ overlap periods there is limited scope for cutting them further, and that on wards with very short overlaps the lack of personal time may contribute to staff dissatisfaction.