Discussion
Our results support earlier findings that work shifts for hospital staff nurses are often quite pro- longed. Like other groups of hospital staff nurses,14 the nurses in our study rarely left work on time. In fact, only 1 of the 502 respondents reported leaving work at the end of all his or her scheduled shifts dur- ing the 28-day data-gathering period. Almost two thirds of the participants worked overtime 10 or more times during the 4-week study period. Even though most shifts were extended a mean of only 49 minutes, this extension usually occurred when nurses had already worked 12.5 consecutive hours, thus clearly exceeding the work hour limits suggested in the recent Institute of Medicine Report.35
We found that longer work duration increased the likelihood for errors and near errors among nurses, sim- ilar to the likelihood for other hospital staff nurses,14 physician residents, intensivists, and anesthesiologists.36-39 Experience in other industries suggests that accident rates increase when workers work 12 hours or more.40-44 Although data on accidents in healthcare facilities are not available, Landrigan et al16 found that interns made more errors in writing orders and other types of errors when the interns worked more than 16 consecutive hours.
DiscussionOur results support earlier findings that work shifts for hospital staff nurses are often quite pro- longed. Like other groups of hospital staff nurses,14 the nurses in our study rarely left work on time. In fact, only 1 of the 502 respondents reported leaving work at the end of all his or her scheduled shifts dur- ing the 28-day data-gathering period. Almost two thirds of the participants worked overtime 10 or more times during the 4-week study period. Even though most shifts were extended a mean of only 49 minutes, this extension usually occurred when nurses had already worked 12.5 consecutive hours, thus clearly exceeding the work hour limits suggested in the recent Institute of Medicine Report.35We found that longer work duration increased the likelihood for errors and near errors among nurses, sim- ilar to the likelihood for other hospital staff nurses,14 physician residents, intensivists, and anesthesiologists.36-39 Experience in other industries suggests that accident rates increase when workers work 12 hours or more.40-44 Although data on accidents in healthcare facilities are not available, Landrigan et al16 found that interns made more errors in writing orders and other types of errors when the interns worked more than 16 consecutive hours.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
