• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.268-279
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast health promoting behaviors, mental health, and quality of life between shift nurses and non-shift nurses and to evaluate factors influencing their quality of life. Method: Data were collected by questionnaires from 113 non-shift nurses and 265 shift nurses who had been working at one of five hospitals in Incheon for more than one year. Descriptive statistics, ANCOVA, logistic regression, and multiple regression were used in performance of data analysis. Results: For shift nurses' mean total scores for health promoting behaviors and quality of life were significantly lower than those for non-shift nurses'(p<.05). Result of logistic regression analyses indicated that marital status (OR=2.092, 95%CI=1.174-3.729) and quality of life (OR=3.397, 95%CI=1.694-6.812) were significant between shift nurses and non-shift nurses. Non-shift work, low stress, provision of health-welfare programs, high score for health promoting behavior, and good mental health status showed an association with better quality of life (explained 48.3% of variance). Conclusion: Educational, policy, and regulatory approaches are required in order to improve mental health and quality of life for nurses, which may be influenced by their unhealthy behaviors such as irregular dietary patterns, while provision of counseling programs may be helpful to enhancement of nurses' mental health.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the influence of consecutive night-shift work and working time on insomnia among hospital nurses. Methods: A descriptive correlational research designutilizing secondary data analysis was adopted. Data on consecutive night-shift work, working time, and insomnia were collected from 64 hospital nurses using a Fitbit activity tracker and questionnaires, and analyzed using hierarchical logistic regression. Results: Consecutive night-shift work for more than three days had a significant influence on insomnia among hospital nurses. Weekly working hours also accounted significantly for the variance in insomnia, exceeding the influence of consecutive night-shift work. Conclusion: Development and implementation of proper schedules to control consecutive night-shift work and working time is important to alleviate insomnia among hospital nurses.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the meaning of job experiences of fixed night shift nurses participating in a pilot project by a tertiary hospital, and to provide basic information for improving their night shift working environment. Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted using individual interviews in September 2022. Three female nurses who worked fixed night shifts were recruited from a tertiary hospital. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: By analyzing the meaning of job experience as a fixed night shift nurse, four categories and nine subcategories were identified. The four categories of job experience of fixed night shift nurses were: expecting an improvement physical health due to predictable working hours, enjoying leisure time due to long off-duty hours, regretting for loosened relationships, and considering a successful settlement of fixed night shift nursing. Conclusion: As night shift work is essential for nurses to provide continuous nursing to patients, it is necessary to develop various strategies to improve the physical health of night shift nurses through fatigue management and good sleep quality, mental health through work-life harmony, and social health through intimate relationships between patients and coworkers.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify sleep patterns, alertness, and fatigue of shift nurses according to circadian types. Methods: The researchers' enrolled 17 nurses doing shift work in a tertiary hospital. To evaluate circadian types, a morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ) was administered. Sleep patterns were examined using an actigraph for 14 days. To assess alertness and fatigue, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test with a SPSS 21.0 program. Results: The researchers found that 17.6% of participants reported morning type, 47.1% neither type, and 35.3% evening type. Mean total sleep time (TST) was 6.8 h, mean sleep efficacy was 82%, level of alertness was 6.54, and level of fatigue was 5.49, regardless of the type of shift work. Evening type nurses had higher variation in TST and alertness, according to the shift patterns than other circadian type nurses. Evening type nurses also had higher fatigue levels than other circadian type nurses. Conclusion: Sleep, alertness, and fatigue were related with circadian types. These results suggest that circadian rhythm management in shift work nurses, particularly in evening type nurses is urgently needed to improve sleep patterns, alertness, and to decrease the level of fatigue.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.206-213
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare salivary cortisol levels, self-reported occupational stress, and anxiety before duty to those after duty in the shift and regular work nurses, and the relationships among them. Methods: Thirty nurses working in a tertiary hospital participated in the study. Salivary specimens were collected before and after daytime duty for 2 days. The occupational stress and state anxiety were also evaluated using self-report questionnaires. Results: The average level of salivary cortisol was $0.40{\mu}g/dL$ before duty and $0.20{\mu}g/dL$ after duty in Korean nurses. Overall levels of salivary cortisol, self-reported occupational stress, and anxiety were higher in shift working nurses than regular working nurses. In shift working nurses, the salivary cortisol gap between before and after duty was attenuated on the first day of daytime duty. Significant positive correlation was found between the level of cortisol before duty and anxiety after duty. Conclusion: Strategies to alleviate occupational stress and anxiety are needed for shift working nurses, especially for those with elevated levels of cortisol. It seems to require 3days to recover from attenuated cortisol rhythm during nighttime duty in shift working nurses.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.622-635
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to develop and test a structural model for sleep quality in female shift work nurses. The hypothetical model was constructed on the basis of Spielman's 3P model of insomnia and previous research related to the sleep quality of shift nurses. Methods: This cross-sectional study used structural equation modeling and recruited 285 female shift work nurses from four general and university hospitals with over 300 beds located in C and J cities in Gyeongsangnamdo. Data were collected from September 27 to October 20, 2016, and then analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and structural equation modeling. The study used SPSS/Win 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 in processing the data. Results: The final model showed good fit to the empirical data: ${\chi}^2/df=2.19$, SRMR=.07, RMSEA=.07, AGFI=.85, TLI=.91, GFI=.93, GFI=.89, NFI=.87. The factors that influenced sleep quality were sleep hygiene (${\beta}=.32$), perceived shift work status (${\beta}=-.16$), stress response (${\beta}=.16$), shift work experience (${\beta}=.15$), perceived health status (${\beta}=-.14)$, and circadian rhythm (${\beta}=-.13$) explaining 36.0% of the variance. Conclusion: The model of sleep quality of the shift work nurses constructed in this study is recommended as a model to understand and predict the sleep quality of shift work nurses. The results suggest that strategies for improving the sleep quality of shift work nurses should focus on sleep hygiene, perceived health status, stress response, circadian rhythm, perceived shift work status, and shift work experience.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 1999

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of shift work on psychological, physical and social adjustment in nurses. Methods: Two hundred ninety-nine female nurses(179 shift worker, 120 non-shift worker) filled out a questionnaire, which consisted of fifty-six items including demographic characteristics. Subjective ratings of psychological, physical, social and sleeprelated distresses were assessed with a visual analogue scale(100mm). Results: Shift work exerted significantly negative impacts on all psychological, physical, social and sleep-related variables of the shift work nurses. The subjective perception about psychological and physical health of shift work nurses was significantly negative as compared to that of non-shift work nurses. Shift work nurses complained of more shift work related social dysfunction and limited social activity. Shift work nurses were also suffering from significant sleep difficulties as compared to non-shift work nurses. Conclusions: This study suggests that shift work can exert a negative impact on psychological and physical health of nurses as it can cause disturbances of the normal circadian rhythms of the psychophysiological functions, beginning with the sleep-wake cycle. Shift work can also cause difficulties in maintaining the usual relationships both at family and social levels. These results may suggest that we need appropriate coping strategies to overcome adverse effects of shift work.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.308-316
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene among nurses with shift work schedules and examine the influence on sleep disturbance. Methods: A total of 199 shift-work nurses from a tertiary hospital were included in the study. To examine the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene, the participants were asked to respond to a self-reported survey. To assess sleep disturbance, the General Sleep Disturbance Scale was used. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were applied using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program to analyze the data. Results: Both the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene among nurses with shift work schedules were measured at a moderate level. Nurses' knowledge and the performance of sleep hygiene was not significantly associated with sleep disturbance, whereas age, experience with shift-working, and perceived health status were significantly associated. Conclusion: Strategies for providing more accurate information and motivating better sleep hygiene would help to enhance sleep hygiene in nurses with shift work schedules. Further studies examining the association of knowledge and the performance of sleep hygiene with sleep disturbances in nurses with shift work schedules are needed.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.165-178
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• 2021

Purpose: To analyze nurses' shift work according to the government guidelines for night work and their perceptions of their work schedules. Methods: The study sample included 487 nurses who provided information on their schedules, including the normal working hours of each shift, and overtime per shift during September 2020. Nurses' perceptions were measured in terms of satisfaction, appropriateness for work-life balance, and fairness to their work schedule. Results: One-third of the respondents worked more than 40 hours per week. The average overtime hour was 1.14 hours per shift. Unsocial hours (8 pm to 6 am on weekdays, midnight to midnight on weekends and public holidays) accounted for 56.4% of all working hours. During their last night shift, on average, nurses worked 9.62 hours and had a break of 39 minutes, although 20.5% reported no break. Sixty-eight percent of nurses had at least one between-shift break shorter than 48 hours after a consecutive night shifts. Fifty-seven percent were satisfied with their schedule. One-third perceived their schedule as appropriate for work-life balance, and two-thirds perceived that days off on weekends and nights were fairly distributed within the unit. Working and overtime hours had an inverse relationship with all three aspects of nurses' perceptions. A higher proportion of unsocial hours and having no breaks during the night shift were associated with lower perceptions of fairness. Conclusion: Reducing working hours, ensuring breaks during night shifts, and increasing rewards for unsocial hours are required to improve nurses' perceptions and reduce turnover due to shift work.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2009

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the effect of shift work on diurnal blood pressure (BP) pattern in nurses. Method: We studied 20 healthy nurses engaged in 3 shift work. 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring was performed to each nurse two times during the day and night shift. Five nurses were excluded because of inadequate BP measurement. Results: All subjects were female. The mean age was 27.4 years (range: 23-33 years) and mean body mass index was 19.7 Kg/$m^2$ (range: 18.0-21.2 Kg/$m^2$). The changes of systolic BP ($17.8{\pm}9.1$ vs. $13.2{\pm}4.7%$, p=0.031), diastolic BP ($22.3{\pm}8.7$ vs. $17.3{\pm}9.0%$, p=0.061), and heart rate ($25.2{\pm}5.2$ vs. $12.5{\pm}8.7%$, p=0.001) during the sleeping period were decreased after a night shift compared with day shift. The non-dipper group significantly increased from 20% to 40% after a night shift (p=0.018). Conclusion: Working night shift is significantly associated with non-dipper status in nurses.