Night Shift and its Impact upon the Quality of Life of Nurses Working at the Teaching Hospitals of the Medical City Complex in Baghdad City, Iraq

Abstract

Background: Nurses are key players in health care delivery, with night shift nurses having a special role in the provision of this health care. Night shift nurses are responsible for patient care with little support in a difficult working environment; under conditions of fatigue and other hardships directly related to working at night. Objective: The present study aims to find out the impact of night shift on nurses quality of life; and to find out any relationship between the quality of life and some demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, level of education and duration of career. Methodology: A descriptive study was carried out to assess the nurses’ quality of life. The nurses who work at Teaching hospitals of Medical City Complex were recruited from the 21st of February to 15th of July 2015. A nonprobability sample of 70 night shift nurses was selected. The investigator constructed the questionnaire for purpose of the study. This questionnaire consisted of two parts; some demographic characteristics of those nurses and a scale which assess the levels of quality of night shift nurses. Data are analysed using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and Pearson Chi-Square as an inferential statistical analysis. Results: The study results revealed that the majority of study participants were young and married. About quarter of the number of the nurses have duration of career of five years and less. More than half of nurses had very weak and weak quality of life. Mid-aged nurses had lower levels of quality of life. The results showed that the male nurses had higher levels of quality of life than female nurses did and the married nurses are more likely to have lower levels of quality of life than unmarried did. Finally, there was a significant relationship between levels of quality of life and gender and age. Recommendation: The study recommends that it should provide adequate off-duty hours to let an uninterrupted sleep cycle of at least 8 h a day, which may affect nurses’ daily life at home. It should use permanent shift assignments, which may diminish tiredness effects, instead of rotating shift duties.