Nurses’ experiences and preferences around shift patterns: A scoping review

Objective To explore the evidence on nurses’ experiences and preferences around shift patterns in the international literature. Data sources Electronic databases (CINHAL, MEDLINE and Scopus) were searched to identify primary studies up to April 2021. Methods Papers reporting qualitative or quantitative studies exploring the subjective experience and/or preferences of nurses around shift patterns were considered, with no restrictions on methods, date or setting. Key study features were extracted including setting, design and results. Findings were organised thematically by key features of shift work. Results 30 relevant papers were published between 1993 and 2021. They contained mostly qualitative studies where nurses reflected on their experience and preferences around shift patterns. The studies reported on three major aspects of shift work: shift work per se (i.e. the mere fact of working shift), shift length, and time of shift. Across all three aspects of shift work, nurses strive to deliver high quality of care despite facing intense working conditions, experiencing physical and mental fatigue or exhaustion. Preference for or adaptation to a specific shift pattern is facilitated when nurses are consulted before its implementation or have a certain autonomy to self-roster. Days off work tend to mitigate the adverse effects of working (short, long, early or night) shifts. How shift work and patterns impact on experiences and preferences seems to also vary according to nurses’ personal characteristics and circumstances (e.g. age, caring responsibilities, years of experience). Conclusions Shift patterns are often organised in ways that are detrimental to nurses’ health and wellbeing, their job performance, and the patient care they provide. Further research should explore the extent to which nurses’ preferences are considered when choosing or being imposed shift work patterns. Research should also strive to better describe and address the constraints nurses face when it comes to choice around shift patterns.

Shift Length and Shift Length Preference Among Acute Care Surgeons

Background Work hour restrictions have been imposed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education since 2003 for medical trainees. Many acute care surgeons currently work longer shifts but their preferred shift length is not known. Methods The purpose of this study was to characterize the distribution of the current shift length among trauma and acute care surgeons and to identify the surgeons’ preference for shift length. Data collection included a questionnaire with a national administration. Frequencies and percentages are reported for categorical variables and medians and means with SDs are reported for continuous variables. A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between call shift choice and trauma center level (level 1 and level II), age, and gender. Results Data from 301 surgeons in 42 states included high-level trauma centers. Assuming the number of trauma surgeons in the United States is 4129, a sample of 301 gives the survey a 5% margin of error. The median age was 43 years (M = 46, SD = 9.44) and 33% were female. Currently, only 23.3% of acute care surgeons work a 12-hour shift, although 72% prefer the shorter shift. The preference for shorter shifts was statistically significant. There was no significant difference between call shift length preference and trauma center level, age, or gender. Conclusion Most surgeons currently work longer than 12-hour shifts. Yet, there was a preference for 12-hour shifts indicating there is a gap between current and preferred shift length. These findings have the potential to substantially impact staffing models.

Response Strategies for High VOCs

The objective of this paper is to discuss the adaptations to response strategies that must be considered in spill scenarios with persistent Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). By comparing two scenarios, one where VOCs evaporated before presenting prolonged risk to responder safety and one where they did not, this paper will show how Marine Spill Response Corporation had to adjust traditional approaches to Personal Protective Equipment, shift length, and response resources to account for prolonged presence of VOCs. Further, this paper also seeks to describe additional techniques not used in these responses that could further increase responder safety in a persistent VOC condition. Each of these strategies has a set of unique challenges that must be addressed so they can become a viable tool in the response toolbox.

Resident-faculty overnight discrepancy rates as a function of number of consecutive nights during a week of night float

ObjectivesIn 2018, the ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) made a change to the maximum permissible number of consecutive nights a resident trainee can be on “night float,” from six to seven nights. To our knowledge, although investigators have studied overall discrepancy rates and discrepancy rates as a function of shift length or perceived workload of a particular shift, no study has been performed to evaluate resident-faculty discrepancy rates as a quality/performance proxy, to see whether resident performance declines as a function of the number of consecutive nights. Our hypothesis is that we would observe a progressive increase in significant overnight resident – attending discrepancies over the 7 days’ time.MethodsA total of 8,488 reports were extracted between 4/26/2019 to 8/22/2019 retrospectively. Data was obtained from the voice dictation system report server. Exported query was saved as a .csv file format and analyzed using Python packages. A “discrepancy checker” was created to search all finalized reports for the departmental standard heading of “Final Attending Report,” used to specify any significant changes from the preliminary interpretation.ResultsModel estimates varied on different days however there were no trends or patterns to indicate a deterioration in resident performance throughout the week. There were comparable probabilities throughout the week, with 2.17% on Monday, 2.35% on Thursday and 2.05% on Friday.ConclusionsOur results reveal no convincing trend in terms of overnight report discrepancies between the preliminary report generated by the night float resident and the final report issued by a faculty the following morning. These results are in support of the ACGME’s recent change in the permissible number of consecutive nights on night float. We did not prove our hypothesis that resident performance on-call in the domain of report accuracy would diminish over seven consecutive nights while on the night float rotation. Our results found that performance remained fairly uniform over the course of the week.

Rancang Bangun Sistem Reservasi Ruangan Menggunakan Near Field Communication (NFC) Berbasis Mikrokontroller

Current technological developments also help in the ordering system. Simplifying the reservation system with information technology is one of the innovations made to help users of the room more easily in booking a room. The system designed consists of hardware and software connected to book a room based on, UID, usage time and to open the door of the room. Hardware includes Arduino Mega, NFC tags, NFC readers, relays, solenoids, buzzers, and LEDs. The software includes a Mysql website and database. The system will store user data, date, shift, length of usage and type of room booked by the user. NFC tags will be used by the customer to open the door to the room by getting closer to the NFC reader. This system aims to facilitate the process of borrowing space without having to undergo a convoluted process.