• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.57-64
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• 2020

Today, with the development of information technology, hospitals are actively researching hospital information systems that are not limited by time and space to integrate mobile computing technology into the medical field to manage the bulk data of medical information. Nevertheless, most hospitals still spend a lot of time and effort creating manual schedules. In this paper, we studied an optimization model for organizing nurses' shift work and constructed an automated nurse-type job organization system. For nurses working in S hospital, information data, requirements and constraints of nurses were constructed. By applying this, we proposed an optimized scheduling method and built a web-based platform used by head nurses and a mobile app platform used by general nurses to enable real-time interchange and sharing around web servers. Therefore, through the developed nurse needs type automated system, the head nurses will increase the convenience of the nurses to organize the work every month, and general nurses will help them to work more accurately through personal schedule management. It is also expected to increase work efficiency by sharing work schedules among nurses.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.646-657
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the quality of sleep in novice and experienced shift work nurses and compare the factors associated with their quality of sleep. Methods: We analyzed the data of 192 and 256 novice and experienced nurses, respectively. The quality of sleep, sleep hygiene, job stress, and fatigue were measured using Insomnia Severity Index, Sleep Hygiene Practice Scale, the Korean Occupational Stress Scale, and Fatigue Severity Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 to calculate descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: Sleep quality was lower in experienced nurses (12.55 ± 5.71) than in novice nurses (11.18 ± 5.78). Fatigue was more severe in experienced nurses (4.47 ± 1.13) than in novice nurses (4.23 ± 1.12). In the logistic regression, factors related to sleep quality in novice nurses were sleep hygiene (odds ratio; OR = 1.06, p < .001) and fatigue (OR = 2.49, p < .001). Factors related to sleep quality in the experienced nurses were also sleep hygiene (OR = 1.04, p = .001) and fatigue (OR = 1.53, p = .012). Conclusion: Sleep quality of experienced nurses is lower than those of novice nurses. Factors associated with sleep quality in novice and experienced nurses are equally identified as sleep hygiene and fatigue. Therefore, personal efforts to improve sleep hygiene, such as providing comfortable sleep environment, are needed. Furthermore, organized efforts to decrease fatigue, such as constructing a working environment with a bright light at night and providing a fatigue-decreasing program that includes meditation, are required.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.129-149
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• 1991

Circadian rhythm is entrained in the 24-hour time interval by periodic factors in the environment, known as zeitgeber. But most rotating work schedules are outside the range of the entrainment of the pacemaker timing the human circadian sleep - wake cycle. It has been postulated that physiological and emotional disturbances occur in most human functions when the circadian rhythm is disturbed. So application of circadian principles to the design of shift schedules can aid in maintaining the temporal integrity of the circadian system and thereby minimize for the shift worker any detrimental consequences of circadian disruption. This study was a quasi-experimental study to test the effect of shift intervals for the clinical nurse on the circadian rhythm. Twenty nurses newly employed in general units of two hospitals were selected as an experimental group and twelve college nursing students as a control group. Both groups were selected according to an established criteria using a purposive sampling technique. Ten subjects were assigned to a weekly shift group and another ten to a biweekly shift group engaged in a semi -continuous shift schedule(sunday off) with a backward direction, that is, morning -evening - night shift. The control group worked a morning shift for 42 days. Oral temperature rhythm, waking tim, sleep - wake cycle, fatigue, and mental performance were measured during the experimental period. The data collection period was from April 30, 1990 to June 10, 1990. MANOVA, paired t-test, ANOVA, and Student Newman Keuls method were used for statistical analysis. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Phase delay in the acrophase of temperature rhythm was shown according to the backward rotating shift. A complete adaptation to work on the night shift was achieved between the sixth and ninth day of the night shift. 2. There was no difference in either waking time or sleep- wake cycle according to the duration of the working day for every shift group. Significant difference was found in the waking time and the sleep -wake cycle for subjects on the morning, evening, and night shift in both of the shift groups(weekly shift group : λ＝0.121, p＜0.01, λ＝0.112, p＜0.01, biweekly shift group : λ＝0.116, p＜0.01, λ＝0.084, p＜0.01). 3. There was no difference in fatigue between the first working day and the last working day for the control group and for the biweekly shift group. In the weekly shift group, physical fatigue was significantly different for the first day and the sixth day of the night shift(t＝-2.28, p＜0.05). Physical fatigue and total fatigue on the first day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝5.79, p＜0.01, F＝4.56, p＜0.05). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05), Physical fatigue, neurosensory fatigue and total fatigue on the last day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝12.65, p＜0.01, F＝7.77, p＜0.01, F＝9.68, p＜0.01). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05). 4. No difference in mental performance was seen between the first day and the last day of work in each case. An arithmatic test on the first day of the night shift revealed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝3.79, p＜0.05). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05) . The digital symbol substitution test and the arithmetic test on the last day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝3.68, p＜0.05, F＝5.55, p＜0.01), and both showed a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05). Accordingly, this study showed that during night duty, the waking time, sleep- wake cycle, and fatigue increased and mental performance decreased compared with morning and evening duty. It was also found that the weekly shift group had a higher fatigue score on the sixth day of night duty as compared to the -first day, but the waking time, sleep- wake cycle, and mental performance revealed no difference for the duration of the night duty or between shift groups, and complete adaptation of temperature rhythm was achieved between the sixth and ninth day of night duty. It is possible to conclude from these results that for intermediate circadian type in a healthy young woman, a biweekly shift system is more compatible with the circadian timing system than weekly shift system.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.90-94
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• 1997

Many workers like welders are working in squat sitting postures with te object on the ground for an entire work shift. It is suspected that such prolonged squat sitting without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is to quantitatively evaluate the physical stress caused by the prolonged squat sitting and to recommend a safe work/rest schedule for the task with squat sitting posture based on the lab experiment. In this study, 8 healthy student subjects participated in the experiment. They maintained a squat sitting posture for 16 minutes with 4 different stool height conditions: no stool, 10cm hight, 15cm height, 20cm height. Every 2 minutes, the discomfort was subjectively assessed using the magnitude estimation method for the whole body, lower back, upper leg and lower leg. Based on discomfort rating, we found that 10cm height stool relieved the workload most. Discomfort rating results also indicated that 20cm height stool showed the heghest workload, and that there was no difference in workload between 15cm height and no stool. We recommend to provide the workers with 10cm height stool for prolonged squat sitting tasks.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.74-79
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• 2014

Objectives: Shift work is a stressful situation. It is important to know the factors associated with the ability to adapt to a shift work schedule. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between sleep, as well as personality variables, and the resilience of shift work nurses. Method: Self-report questionnaires were administered to 95 nurses who worked in one national university hospital. Connor-Davidson resilience scale, hospital anxiety and depression scale, morningness-eveningness scale, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, other sleep-related questionnaires, and Korean defense style questionnaires were used. Results: Age, shift work duration, off-day oversleep, depression, anxiety, adaptive defense style, and self-suppressive defense style were significantly associated with resilience (p < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that age (${\beta}=0.34$, p < 0.05), depression (${\beta}=-0.25$, p < 0.05), adaptive defense style (${\beta}=0.45$, p < 0.001), and self-suppressive defense style (${\beta}=-0.19$, p < 0.05) significantly predicted the resilience of shift work nurses. Concerning individual defense mechanisms, resignation (${\beta}=-0.20$, p < 0.05), sublimation (${\beta}=0.19$, p < 0.05), omnipotence (${\beta}=0.19$, p < 0.05), and humor (${\beta}=0.20$, p < 0.05) significantly predicted the resiliency. Conclusion: The findings indicate that a specific defense style and other mechanisms were associated with the resilience of shift work nurses. A future prospective study with more participants could further clarify the relationship between sleep-related variables, as well as personality factors, and resilience of shift work nurses.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.266-274
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• 2019

Purpose: The aim of this research was to identify the mediating effect of sleep quality on the relationship between job stress and stress response of shift-working nurses. Methods: The participants in this study were 150 nurses who had more than 6 months of shift-working experience. A survey was conducted from May to June 2017 in a hospital in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The data were collected through self-report questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using SAS 9.4 program. The analysis was based on Baron and Kenny's model to examine the mediating effects of sleep quality on the relationship between job stress and stress response of shift-working nurses. Results: In the first and second steps, job stress was identified as a significant predictor of sleep quality (β= .29, p= .001) and stress response (β = .24, p= .004). In the third step, sleep (B = .55, p< .001) was observed as a significant predictor of stress response, and the direct relationship between job stress and stress response was not significant (β= .07, p= .291). Sleep quality was found to exhibit complete mediating effect on the relationship between job stress and stress response. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that strategies for managing the stress of shift-working nurses should include effective ways to ensure sleep quality.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.167-173
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• 1998

Many workers like welders work in squatting postures with the object on the ground during an entire work shift. It is suspected that such prolonged squatting without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is to examine the physical stress caused by the prolonged squatting and to recommend a safe work/rest schedule for a welding task with squatting posture based on the lab experiments. In this study, 8 healthy student subjects participated in the experiment. They maintained a squatting work posture for 16 minutes with 4 different stool height conditions: no stool; 10cm height; 15cm height; and 20cm height. Every 2 minutes, the discomfort was subjectively assessed with the magnitude estimation method for the whole body, lower back, upper leg and lower leg. Based on discomfort ratings, we found that a 10cm height stool relieved the workload most. Discomfort rating results also indicated that a 20cm height stool showed the highest workload, and the there were no difference in workload between a 15cm height stool and no stool. We recommend to use low height stools and to maintain such working postures no longer than 6 minutes for prolonged squatting tasks.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.27 no.3 s.47
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• pp.475-486
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• 1994

In order to provide necessary information for better health of workers through understanding the actual status of the industries adopting shift systems. The data were gathered from a stratified random sample of 347 (0.5%) firms selected out of about 70,000 manufacturing industries throughout the nation in 1993. Stratification during sampling was by industrial group and number of workers. The major findings obtained from 288 firms surveyed completely were as follows : 1. About 20.2% of the 288 firms were adopting shift systems and shirtworkers accounted for about 25.1% of the total work force in 288 firms. 2. The bigger number of workers was, the higher the adopting rate of shift system was. 3. The rate of having welfare facilities such as dining room, commuting bus, washing facilities, and health care room etc. was higher in the industries adopting shift systems. 4. The major industrial groups adopting shift systems were the rubber a: plastic goods manufacturing industry (54.1 per 100 firms) and the textile manufacturing industry (44.8 per 100 firms). However, the proportion of shiftworkers was higher in the textile manufacturing industry (70.5 per 100 firms) and the electronics industry (57.9 per 100 frms). 5. The most predominant work schedule was the weekly rotating, semi-continuos 2-crew 2-shift system (47.5%). 6. In the industries adopting shift systems, shiftworkers had an adjusted average of 0.29 spells per 100 workers ($0.14{\sim}0.45$ in 95% C.I.) compared to 0.23 spells per 100 nonshift dayworkers ($0.15{\sim}0.31$ in 95% C.I.) for 1 month. 7. Also, in the industries adopting shift systems, the adjusted average annuel turn-over rate of shiftworkers was 13.07 per 100 workers ($12.03{\sim}14.12$ in 95% C.I.) compared to 10.18 per 100 nonshift dayworkers ($9.53{\sim}10.82$ in 95% C.I.).

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.72-77
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• 2016

Background: This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors related to needle stick injuries (NSIs) and to assess related safety measures among a sample of Iranian nurses. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 168 registered active nurses was selected from different wards of one of the hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS). Data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire and a checklist based observational method among the 168 registered active nurses. Results: The prevalence of NSIs in the total of work experience and the last year was 76% and 54%, respectively. Hollow-bore needles were the most common devices involved in the injuries (85.5%). The majority of NSIs occurred in the morning shift (57.8%) and the most common activity leading to NSIs was recapping needles (41.4%). The rate of underreporting NSIs was 60.2% and the major reasons for not reporting the NSIs were heavy clinical schedule (46.7%) and perception of low risk of infection (37.7%). A statistically significant relationship was found between the occurrence of NSIs and sex, hours worked/week, and frequency of shifts/month. Conclusion: The study showed a high prevalence of NSIs among nurses. Supportive measures such as improving injection practices, modification of working schedule, planning training programs targeted at using personal protective equipment, and providing an adequate number of safety facilities such as puncture resistant disposal containers and engineered safe devices are essential for the effective prevention of NSI incidents among the studied nurses.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2017

Background: Job stress and job satisfaction are important factors affecting workforce productivity. This study was carried out to investigate the job stress, job satisfaction, and workforce productivity levels, to examine the effects of job stress and job satisfaction on workforce productivity, and to identify factors associated with productivity decrement among employees of an Iranian petrochemical industry. Methods: In this study, 125 randomly selected employees of an Iranian petrochemical company participated. The data were collected using the demographic questionnaire, Osipow occupational stress questionnaire to investigate the level of job stress, Job Descriptive Index to examine job satisfaction, and Hersey and Goldsmith questionnaire to investigate productivity in the study population. Results: The levels of employees' perceived job stress and job satisfaction were moderate-high and moderate, respectively. Also, their productivity was evaluated as moderate. Although the relationship between job stress and productivity indices was not statistically significant, the positive correlation between job satisfaction and productivity indices was statistically significant. The regression modeling demonstrated that productivity was significantly associated with shift schedule, the second and the third dimensions of job stress (role insufficiency and role ambiguity), and the second dimension of job satisfaction (supervision). Conclusion: Corrective measures are necessary to improve the shift work system. "Role insufficiency" and "role ambiguity" should be improved and supervisor support must be increased to reduce job stress and increase job satisfaction and productivity.