• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.255-260
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• 2021

Background: A well-designed shift schedule has been reported to have a positive effect on improving health problems associated with shift work. This study aimed to identify compliance with the 17 recommendations on work schedule (WSRs) for shift nurses and related factors. Methods: The descriptive study was conducted with 182 nurses who worked in three shifts for more than 1 year at superior general and general hospitals in three regions. Data were collected with selfadministered questionnaire and 13-week work schedule tables, and analyzed with both person- and cycle-based compliance. Results: Person-based compliance was 11.77 among 17 items in total. However, no one completely complied with WSRs of "no work on weekends" and which showed the lowest cycle-based compliance (22.3%). Compliance with some WSRs was related to hospital type, proportion of nurses in school and having standards on work schedule at institutional level. Conclusion: Compliance with WSRs of shift nurses in Korea is still unsatisfactory, and one day off after night shift and work on weekend are quite common. Hospitals should keep the standards on work schedule, monitor compliance with standards, and try to introduce modified shift systems to improve the current problems.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.77-97
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• 1994

The circadian system represents a temporal order which is mediated by the mutual coupling of oscillators and by the synchronizing effects of zeitgebers. It is known that well-being of man depends partly on the maintenance of this order, and that repeated or long lasting disturbances to it such as shift work will Cause harmful effects. This study was a quasi-experimental study to test the effect of shift directions for the clinical nurses on the circadian rhythm. Fourteen nurses working at the general units of Y hospital were selected according to the established criteria. Fourteen subjects were assigned to a weekly shift but the directions of shift work were phase delay first and then phase advance or vice versa. Oral temperature, total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom were measured during these days except holidays. The data collection period was from April 26, 1993 to July 3, 1993. MANOVA and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for statistical analysis. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Having worked on evening and night shifts in either phase delay or phase advance schedules, temperature rhythms of shift workers were gradually adapted to the new sleep-wake cycles. A complete adaptation to work on the night shift was achieved the sixth day of the night shift in the phase delay schedule compared to the partial adaptation to the work on the night shift in the phase advance schedule. Accordingly, by putting evening shift between day and night shifts, it will be possible for circadian rhythm to adapt easily to the night shift. 2. There were differences in the total sleeping time, frequency of steep-wake cycle, fatigue, and physical symptom except for mental performance between night shift and day, evening shift. This indicates further that shift workers working on the night shift have a hard time adapting to the shift work compared to the other shifts. 3. Evaluating all the acrophases of temperature rhythm either in phase delay or phase ad-vance schedules, it was shown that night to evening shift in the phase ad-vance schedule revealed the smallest phase move. Also phase advance schedule showed poorer adaptation to shift work than phase delay schedule in connection with total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom. It is suggested, taken together, these findings reflect that phase delay schedule facilitated the degree of adjustment to the shift work compared to the phase advance schedule.

• 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.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to develop an efficient algorithm for the management of the shift schedule in nuclear power plants in consideration with the ergonomic criteria and the regulatory codes. The ergonomic criteria considered are the work hours, overtime-work frequency and working time, start and finishing time of works, allocation of rest times and duty-offs, rotating of shifts, etc. to comply with the regulations such as the Labor Standard Act, the ILO Convention No. 171, 178, "the detailed content of a periodic safety review," enforcement regulations 19-2 of the Atomic Energy Act. The developed algorithm for the shift schedule program adopts a heuristic method to minimize the difference the workload for shift workers in nuclear power plants.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.126-133
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• 2023

Objectives: This study was conducted to find out the prevalence and risk factors of anemia according to shift work. Methods: Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey (2016-2020) were used. 9,787 workers were divided into shift workers and non-shift workers. The work type between 6AM-6PM was defined as day work, and other work types were defined as shift work. A chi-square test was used to indicate the distribution of risk factors expected to affect shift work in both frequency and percentage. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to find out the relationship between anemia prevalence and shift work. Results: As a result of analysis, multiple logistic regression analysis of anemia prevalence and shift work, the OR (95% CI) of male workers on shift work was 2.186 (1.139 to 4.194) and there was a statistically significant difference. Conclusions: In conclusion, anemia in male shift workers should be considered a possibility of health problems. In the future, research based on various data collection should be conducted for research to reveal various causes or diseases of anemia in the future.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.33-43
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• 2003

In this paper we applied dynamic programming to determining work schedule type. In dynamic programming formulation, each day during a planning horizon represents a stage for which a decision is made. The alternatives are given by work schedule types that combine regular time, overtime, additional shift, and so on. In this case, their associated return function is labor cost. The state is defined as the amount of work time allocated to stage 1, stage 2,…, and current stage. A case study for a real manufacturing company was performed to apply dynamic programming to scheduling daily work hours during a week. The case study showed that total cost of our solution derived from dynamic programming decreased by about 6％ as compared with the solution obtained from the previous method.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.41.1-41.11
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• 2023

Background: Shift work has been reported to have several harmful effects on the human body. However, a small number of studies have evaluated the association between shift work and adverse effects on the thyroid. In our longitudinal study, we examined the causal association between shift work and the risk of hypothyroidism. Methods: A Kangbuk Samsung Cohort Study was conducted on 112,648 men without thyroid disease at baseline who were followed up at least once between 2012 and 2019. Shift work status and shift schedule types were categorized using standardized questionnaires. Hypothyroidism was defined using the reference ranges of serum thyroid-stimulating hormones and free thyroxine levels. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident hypothyroidism were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses with the daytime work group as the reference. Results: During the 501,237 person-years of follow-up, there were 6,306 incident cases of hypothyroidism (incidence density, 1.26 per 100 person-years). The multivariable-adjusted HR of incident hypothyroidism for the shift work total group that included all shifts compared with the daytime work group was 1.27 (95% CI: 1.15-1.40). For the fixed evening, fixed night, rotating shift, and other shift workers, the multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CI) were 1.11 (0.76-1.61), 2.18 (1.20-3.93), 1.39 (1.23-1.56), and 1.00 (0.82-1.22), respectively. In subgroup analyses by age, the association between shift work and hypothyroidism was more pronounced in younger participants (< 40 years; HR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.16-1.47). Conclusions: Our large-scale cohort study showed an association between shift work and the incidence of hypothyroidism, especially in younger workers with night shifts.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.13-26
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the present conditions of the night work and shift work systems in the heavy chemical industrial complexes found in Changwon, Masan, and Chinhae. Korea. We will attempt to define and classify their problems; and to discover further ways to improve their systems. Fifty production factories were carefully selected as the subjects for this study. The shift systems were classified into five categories. The consecutive night shifts were long in almost all cases with 6 days (36 factories) and 7 days (13 factories). It was found that the night work of about] 2 hours continues for a long period in the weekly rotation full-day shift systems and the night-including non-full-day shift systems, and there was no holiday during a shift cycle in the continuous full-day shift systems. The work time in most shift systems was longer than the 44-hours/week permitted by Korean law. Considering the characteristics of these various types of shift systems, the most essential thing to reduce the shift workers' work load may be to shorten their working hours and improve the schedule of shift systems. It is highly recommended as a fundamental solution. to reduce the portal-to-portal hours from 12 to 8 in the night-including non-full-day shift systems and the weekly rotation full-day shift systems, and at least to employ a 4-team 3-shift system in the continuous full-day shift systems. In addition to this, it should from now on be taken as a goal to restructure the types of shift systems by taking such measures as avoiding continuous night work if possible, providing sufficient off-duty intervals both before and after night shift, providing increased opportunities for workers to nap during night work. and increasing the number of holidays.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the working status and Standard Shiftwork Index (SSI) between night shift-fixed nurses and rotating shift nurses. Methods: Participants were 367 nurses working as registered nurses at 7 different medical institutions. The data were collected from August 8, 2016 to September 30, 2016. Results: Night shift fixed nurses were more satisfied with work schedule than rotating shift nurses. Rotating shift nurses reported higher SSI scores, such as chronic fatigue, musculoskeletal problems, than night shift fixed nurses. In SSI's sub-items, rotating shift nurses reported higher scores, such as the amount of sleep, feeling well after sleep, heartburn or stomach-ache and heartbeat irregularities, than night shift fixed nurses. Conclusion: The results indicated that night shift fixed system might be an effective method to improve nurses' work satisfaction. It is necessary to figure out any suitable night shift fixed system based on the characteristics of each nursing organization. The SSI might be an useful tool to measure the nurses' satisfaction in reference to their work shift.