The relation between routines for shiftwork scheduling and sickness absence at a Norwegian hospital: A cross-sectional study

Elsevier

Available online 3 March 2023, 104477

International Journal of Nursing StudiesAuthor links open overlay panel, AbstractBackground

Shift work is associated with negative health outcomes. Routines for scheduling of shift work can help reduce negative health outcomes of shift work and improve work-life balance and social well-being for nurses working shift work.

Objective

To investigate the association between organizational units` routines for shift work scheduling and nurses´ sickness absence at unit level.

Design

Cross-sectional study design combining quantitative questionnaire data on shift work scheduling routines with data of mean percentage of sickness absence at unit, mean level of exhaustion at unit, mean age and percentage of women working at unit.

Participants

A total of 126 leaders at organizational units with nurses working shift work schedule at Oslo University Hospital answered a questionnaire about shift work scheduling.

Measures

Three aspects of health-promoting shift work scheduling (fatigue-reducing scheduling, organizational health measures, and individual adaptation) and the extent to which operational considerations were made during shift work scheduling was used as independent variables. Covariates were mean age of nurses at each unit, mean percent female nurses, and mean exhaustion at unit level. Percent sickness absence were used as dependent variable.

Methods

Questionnaire data on shift work scheduling routines was merged with information on average age of employees in the unit, ratio female nurses, and units` average score on exhaustion. Multivariable Linear Regression analyses was used to assess the contribution of routines for shift work scheduling after controlling for mean level of exhaustion, average age, and proportion of women at each unit.

Results

The factors “fatigue reducing scheduling”, “organizational health measures” and “operational considerations” had no observed total effect on mean sickness absence. Individual adjustment in shift work scheduling had a direct negative association (with sickness absence after controlling for other shift work scheduling routines, exhaustion, age, and gender.

Conclusions

There is a relationship between the units’ routines for shift work scheduling and mean sickness absence at the unit, and the possibility of individual adjustment was the only aspect of shift work scheduling that had an above-zero association with sickness absence.

Keywords

Empowerment

Exhaustion

Health Promotion

Involvement

Nurses

Occupational Health

Shift work

Scheduling

Sickness Absence

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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