Question

Twelve-hour shifts are problematic for patient and nurse safety, yet hospitals continue to keep the 12-hour shift schedule. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (Board on Health Care Services & Institute of Medicine, 2004) published a report that referred to studies as early as 1988 that discussed the negative effects of rotating shifts on intervention accuracy. Workers with 12-hour shifts experienced more fatigue than workers on 8-hour shifts. In another study done in Turkey by Ilhan, Durukan, Aras, Turkcuoglu, and Aygun (2006), factors relating to increased risk for injury were age of 24 years or younger, less than 4 years of nursing experience, working in surgical intensive care units, and working for more than 8 hours. As a clinician reading these studies, what would your next step be?

Answer 1

Clinicians are the primary care giver of the patient in hospital as a Physician,Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant.

The clinicians can suggest for the following

• 12 hour shifts tends a nurse to be fatique physically, stressed mentally hence a break shift to be provided ( rest of 4 hours)
• If it is a rotational shift of 8 hours a proper EHR ( Electronic Health Record) or patient details has to be maintained to carry out duty without any confusions.
• Nurses having less than 4 years experience should work as junior staff ,who could be observed and helped by their seniors if they have doubt.
• The chance of injury is very high because the nurse has just begun the career,where many new technologies and treatment methods to be learnt
• A continuing Nursing Education to be implemented for the new joined or the freshers to prevent injury
• Before assigning patient the nurse should be assessed clinically and by theoretical knowledge to handle the case