Work Schedule
Nurses as well as many industrial and law-enforcement personnel are frequently required to change shifts every week or month. Shift workers who rotate reportedly are more subject to anorexia, digestive disturbances, restless sleep patterns, lowered work quality, and more errors and accidents. Rotating shift assignments are thus relevant to these workers` health and quality of work performance. Altering the sleep-wake sequence requires time for the person to make adjustments and regain synchrony.
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| Shift Workers |
If shift rotation cannot be eliminated, then nurses should be required to rotate not more frequently than once a month. Consistently working at night allows a person to acquire a new sleep-wake rhythm. Therefore, night work should be made more attractive to persons who can adapt to the shift and are willing to remain on it permanently. Those who cannot adapt should be exampt from rotation.
Health teaching of any rotating-shift worker concerning the possible consequences of such a routine should not be overlooked. Night workers on medications should be made aware that the effects to medications may vary somewhat from those they usually experience when working days. The susceptibility to various degrees of drug metabolism occurs throughout the day, but even more so when a person is experiencing jet lag or the early phase of shift rotation. Individuals with chronic illness such as diabetes or hypertension must add these factors when they plan their medication regimen.
References :
Felton, Geraldine, and Mary Patterson, “Shift Rotation Is Against Nature”, American Journal of Nursing, 71: No. 4, 1971.
Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
