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The Relationship Between Shift Work
Changes in the health care industry
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1.1.1. Working hours and shift work
Nurses are working under in a variety of shift work systems to be able to provide continuous care for patients. However, 24 hours workplace organizations are now very common, such as in the healthcare and industrial sectors. This requires the staff to be adapted with many various forms of shift work schedules. In terms of healthcare sector, the shift work schedules are considered shift duration which highlights two main categories of shift systems, each system provides 24 hours of care. The shift work can be three eight hours shift, or two twelve hours shift. Eight hour shifts can be divided as morning/afternoon/ and evening shifts for five days in a week. On the other hand, a twelve-hour shift is widely popular and characterized by a compressed working week which is more than eight-hour duration but less than five days in a week. Applying 12- hour shifts can result in a benefit by having more days off. Moreover, in response to nursing shortage and cost effectiveness, twelve-hour shifts are widely been applied in the hospitals. However, despite of the advantages of applying twelve-hour shifts, there are many disadvantages. Long working hours have an impact on nurse’s health and wellbeing. It found that long hour shifts are associated with fatigue which can increase the risk of nursing errors and affects the quality of nursing care. Additionally, the level of job satisfaction and stress among the nurses are affected (Scott et al.,2006).
Furthermore, the regulations in some countries restrict the number of working hours, such as 40 hour/week, or longer 60 hour/week. For example, in Saudi Arabia the ministry of health in the governmental hospitals restrict the working hours to 40 hour/wee...
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...i female nurses prefer to work 8- hour shifts five days in a week instead of 12-hour shifts and having more days off (Gilany and Al-Wehad, 2001). However, this aspect is being ignored by the hospital’s organization that may lead to increase the turnover rate of Saudi nurses. Therefore, working hour is very important aspect that should be considered. It boosts the rate of staff turnover and dissatisfaction which makes most Saudi nurses tend to leave the hospital. Secondly, it plays a key role with regard to the safety for both patients and nurses and the quality of care. For example, in my field work the incident reports as a result of nurses’ fatigue, and stress, and are well-documented. Thus, conducting this review is very important to make more evidence to enhance the shift system at my field of work and increase the rate of Saudi staff nurses.
Inadequate rest which results in fatigue has major implications on the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care. Nurses often work three to four 12 hour shift a week without taking any breaks while on duty. They often have difficult workloads and challenges which can take a toll and impact patient care. I will be taking a look at nurse fatigue and the impact it has on the nurse’s wellbeing, work, and patient care.
Overall, 12 hours may seem long but it is relatively productive for a week. Nurses who work 12 hour shifts and being able to do something they like are more likely to want to work for 12 hours. They find it flexible and balance between work and families. It is a duty to the heart to help those in need if it requires more time. It is similar to anyone who really works hard to get better results. Nurses work hard to get to where they are now and therefore should have the right to choose 12 hour shifts. It is important for nurses to understand that all jobs have negative outcomes, but as long as they make the choice to maintain the level of their health and sleep by taking breaks and adequate exercise. They can further be energized in helping patients and finding work more effectively.
A considerable amount of literature has been published on the impact of working hours (8 vs. 12 hour shifts) on fatigue among the nurses. These studies revealed that twelve-hour shifts increase the risk of fatigue, reduce the level of alertness and performance, and therefore reduce the safety aspect compared to eight-hour shifts (Mitchell and Williamson, 1997; Dorrian et al., 2006; Dembe et al., 2009; Tasto et al., 1978). Mills et al. (1982) found that the risk of fatigues and performance errors are associated with the 12-hour shifts. Beside this, Jostone et al. (2002) revealed that nurses who are working for long hours are providing hasty performance with increased possibility of errors.
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
Nurses. They are such a vital part of any hospital and in any medical offices. Their main focus is on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they can recover to perfect health. But with the constant demand, shortage staff and need for nursing, help or hurting them. During my research, I found that some people agree that overworking nurses is okay because the hospital still thrives and that an overworked is just collateral damage. Other think that overworking nurses is wrong and something should be done to change the problem. In this paper, I will discuss effects of nurses being overworked back by research.
...hological preparation. After a nurse is done working their regular shift being forced to work overtime can out them a greater right of medical mistake in part due to fatigue and tiredness consequently putting the patient at high risk of complications.
Witkoski Stimpfel, Amy , Douglas M. Sloane, and Linda H. Aiken. "The Loger the shifts for hosital nurses, the higher the levels of burnout and patient disstisfaction." Health Affairs 31.11 (2012): 2501-2509. Proquest. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.
Have women really experienced progress? Or has their oppression just changed in form? There is no doubt that women, overtime, have gained more power throughout society. From the first and second waves of feminism to today women have fought and won battles over political, personal, psychological and sexual aspects of female oppression. Essentially, they have experienced and continue to experience a revolution. Nevertheless, despite this acclaimed progress, women still face significant forms of oppression.
In line with the continuous improvement initiative to uplift the service delivery system to the public, flexible working hour’s schedule which is also known as Staggered Working Hours (SWH) has been implemented in the Federal Territory of...
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main
Notably, having higher proportions of nurses working shorter shifts—8–9 hours or 10–11 hours—resulted in decreases in patient dissatisfaction” (Stimpfel et al.). This is essentially saying that the longer the shift length, the more negative outcomes result. This study proves that eight to nine-hour shifts are more effective, and should, in turn, be worked more than longer shifts. This is a problem because hospitals are likely to continue to schedule nurses for twelve hours shifts out of
Working in a fast-paced environment and being on their feet can really take a toll on a person. In addition they have to be prepared for anything to happen during their shift. A study of overworked and stressed nurses found that nurses are overworked suffered from physical sickness like type two diabetes (Stress and overworked 2006). For most nurses, their work week consists of more than sixty hours. Working that many hours can double their chances of sicknesses. When they compare the working week hours of nurses who worked the normal 21 to 40 hours with those that work more than 40 or 60 hours a week, they found that in comparison the ones who worked 40 hours or more a week increased the risk by almost 50 percent for type 2 diabetes (Stress and overwork 2006). If nurses were to work their normal work hours without mandatory overtime, then their health would improve.
It is very important to understand sleep to then understand the effects of shift work and to understand how to increase safety. There is very little knowledge about why we need a normal sleep cycle that include sleeping at night, but even less is known about the sleep cycles of those who try to sleep during the day and go to work during the long night. All the studies are not clear about what is the correct amount of sleep is actually required for a healthy lifestyle. As you look there the research there are result that show long natural sleepers and short sleepers have increase in mortality stats.
Long working hours continue to be one of the largest health concerns in the world. Currently, the world population has become so busy due to the pressure from harsh economic conditions. People are therefore spending long working hours in the workplace, which is an aspect that has negative impact on their health conditions. Statistics from Working Condition Survey indicates that approximately 30% of workers residing in European Union believe that their health is at risk due to the hours they spent in the workplace (Gurung, 2010:16)