Comparison of general health status and sleep quality between nurses with fixed working shifts and nurses with rotating working shifts

Abstract

: Background : Nurses are vulnerable to various sleep disorders because of the nature of their job. If nurses do not experience a good general health, they will not be able to do their job (patient care) well. Materials and Method : We conducted a descriptive-comparative study in 180 nurses that were selected with the stratified sampling method who have been working in different work shift hours in teaching hospitals. We used PSQI and GHQ-28 questionnaire for collecting data. Results : The study results showed a statistically significant difference in sleep quality and general health of nurses based on two questionnaires (p=0.01 p=0.05) respectively. Conclusion : According to our findings we suggest fixed working shifts versus rotating one for nurses to reduce the side effects.