Rogers, Ann E., Wei-Ting Hwang, Linda D. Scott, Linda H. Aiken, and David F. Dinges, “The Working Hours of Hospital Staff Nurses and Patient Safety”, Health Affairs Vol. 23/4, July/August 2004: pp202-212.
ABSTRACT:
“The use of extended work shifts and overtime has escalated as hospitals cope with a shortage of registered nurses (RNs). Little is known, however, about the prevalence of these extended work periods and their effects on patient safety. Logbooks completed by 393 hospital staff nurses revealed that participants usually worked longer than scheduled and that approximately 40 percent of the 5,317 work shifts they logged exceeded twelve hours. The risks of making an error were significantly increased when work shifts were longer than twelve hours, when nurses worked overtime, or when they worked more than forty hours per week.”
This is the Research Council’s journal club article for August and very timely. I have been in nursing long enough to recall a time when we all changed to twelve hour shifts. I should say “back” to twelve hour shifts, because twelve hour shifts appeared early on in the history of nursing. I wonder why they changed to eight hour shifts?
In the past few years, I’ve also noticed a trend toward some of the staff working more extra shifts. Some of the staff actually works enough extra shifts to qualify as working a “second job”. I have been amazed at their stamina, because I work part time and find that exhausting. I also know these are the staff that management favors for their flexibility and are therefore building up bonus points when in fact management should be worried about the rate of errors this article alludes to.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Please join us at the next Nursing Research Journal Club on Wednesday, August 8, 12:00 pm-1:00 pm, Sr. Frances Dunn Building, Classroom I.
No comments:
Post a Comment