Evidence-based practice.
Twelve-hour shifts are problematic for patients’ and nurses’ safety, yet hospitals continue to keep the 12-hour shift schedule. In 2004, the 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 et al. (2006), factos relating to increased risk of 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?