Exploring The Sleeping Experiences Of Shiftwork Nurses

Shiftwork scheduling in nursing can lead to diminished health status, quality of life and job dissatisfaction, and it can contribute significantly to decreases in the quality of patient care. In light of the current nursing shortage, and the increasing need for healthcare professionals and services in the coming years, it is imperative that nursing administrators focus on identifying and implementing interventions that counteract the deleterious effects of shiftwork now. This investigation was conducted to explore the sleeping experiences of shiftwork nurses. A convenience sample of 69 (N = 69) licensed nurses working day shift, evenings, nights and rotating shifts at a Midwestern Community Hospital were studied using a structured sleep measurement tool developed by Dr. Daniel Buysse (1989). Statistical findings indicated a significant difference between the groups of nurses for sleep quality F (3, 65) = 2.963,p .039 and sleep duration (3, 65) = 4.658,p .005. Evening shift nurses in this investigation were found to incur the poorest sleep quality and night shift nurses the poorest sleep duration. The sleeping experience of shiftwork nurses remains an important issue, therefore further studies are needed that would explore larger and more diverse populations of shiftwork nurses.