Long shifts may suit some staff, but patient care is suffering

Dean, E. (2014). Extended shifts may suit certain employees, but patient care suffers as a result: a major study found that 12-hour patterns mean work is left undone and standards are low. Erin Dean contributes. 8-9 in Nursing Management, 21(7).

Olds, D. M., and S. P. Clarke (2010). The impact of work hours on adverse events and medical errors. Safety research, 41(2), pp. 153-162.

Y. Wu, S. Fujita, K. Seto, S. Ito, K. Matsumoto, C. C. Huang, and T. Hasegawa (2013). The impact of nurse working hours on patient safety culture: a cross-national assessment using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in Japan, the United States, and Chinese Taiwan. 13(1), 394. BMC health services research. What is the article about?

These Articles sought to survey the safety of the patients in consideration of the hours that the nurses have in a day. This research used the survey of patients on hospitals and it was based on United States, Chinese Taiwan and Japan. It was clear that improving the quality and wellbeing in caring for the health of patients has a positive and significant element in the culture and safety of patients. It was also clear that Professional nurses have a vital impact on safety schemes considering that they are mostly involved in adverse events. Long working hours deteriorates PSC differently between countries. Also, the study sought to know the connection between extended work duration on the registered nurses’ with adverse events and errors whereby it was clear that though Long shifts may suit some staff, the care of patient care seems to suffer.

Why was the research performed?

The purpose of this study was to clarify the impact of a long nurse working hours on PSC in Japan, the US, and Chinese Taiwan using HSOPS. And also to know the connection between the registered nurses extended work duration with adverse events and errors.

Findings

The results suggest that the long working hours of nurses deteriorated the patient safety. The findings reported that long working hours were related to poor PSC as well as increasing the number of adverse events reported.

Strengths

Hospital managers may want to coordinate nurse working schedules to keep working hours appropriate to establish a good PSC. Such efforts might lead to a decrease in the number of adverse events due to miscommunication.

Weaknesses

The limitation of this research was that it was objective indicators of ‘staffing’ such as a patient-nurse ratio or patients’ severity were not collected thus it was unclear how the actual workload or work intensity affected PSC.

Implications for Practice

There should be careful considerations of nursing shifts since they can affect PSC.

Key words

Patient safety, Patient safety culture, Nurse working hours, Adverse events; Errors; Overtime; Registered nurses; Work hour

References

Dean, E. (2014). Long shifts may suit some staff, but patient care is suffering: Major study shows 12-hour patterns mean work is left undone and standards are low. Erin Dean reports. Nursing Management, 21(7), 8-9.

Olds, D. M., & Clarke, S. P. (2010). The effect of work hours on adverse events and errors in health care. Journal of safety research, 41(2), 153-162.

Wu, Y., Fujita, S., Seto, K., Ito, S., Matsumoto, K., Huang, C. C., & Hasegawa, T. (2013). The impact of nurse working hours on patient safety culture: a cross-national survey including Japan, the United States and Chinese Taiwan using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. BMC health services research, 13(1), 394.