Influencing Factors on the Nurse's shift work tolerance

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting shiftwork tolerance among nurses and provide basic data in develop a program for improving their shiftwork tolerance.

Methods

The subjects were 380 shift work nurses at 3 general hospitals, Korea. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires designed to measure health behavior, personal characteristics, and shiftwork tolerance(insomnia, drowsiness, fatigue, anxiety, depression). Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, multiple regression using SPSS 20.0.

Results

As for the sub-areas of shiftwork tolerance for the respondents, insomnia got 18.8 out of 42 points, drowsiness got 9.2 out of 24, fatigue got 15.4 out of 33, anxiety got 7.4 out of 21, and depression got 7.9 out of 21. 74% of the respondents were categorized into the insomnia group, 47.7% into the drowsy group, 47.5% into the anxious group, and 57.4% into the depressed group.

Shiftwork tolerance didn't significantly differ by the demographic characteristics of the respondents but differed significantly by the daily intake of beverages containing caffeine, exercise, and the number of sleeping hours. Shiftwork tolerance was significantly positively correlated with sleeping type, hardiness, and flexibility and negatively correlated with a languidity.

Regression analysis revealed that shiftwork tolerance was affected by sleep-wake habits(morning-evening type), languidity, and hardiness.

Conclusions

Nurse’s shiftwork tolerance significantly affected by sleeping type, languidity, and hardiness. Therefore, to improve the nurse’s shiftwork tolerance, it is necessary to develop a program that improve nurse’s hardiness and decrease the languidity in the hospital.