Proposal

Working Hours and Their Effect on Patient Safety and Wellbeing
Author
Institution
Authors Notes

PROPOSAL
PROBLEM TO BE RESEARCHED: Working Hours and Their Effect on Patient Safety and Wellbeing
BRIEF ABSTRACT: Provision of Health Care is a very sensitive affair. The safety of both the patient and health practitioner is highly dependent on several factors. Mental well-being of the health practitioner is one of them. Since the provision of healthcare affects both the physical and mental strength of the practitioners, it is prudent that the health institution management ensures that the health staff has ample time to rest and recuperate between shifts. Health institutions suffer big losses due to medical malpractice lawsuits because of negligent and overworked medical staff ADDIN CSL_CITATION { “citationItems” : [ { “id” : “ITEM-1”, “itemData” : { “DOI” : “10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.01.007”, “ISBN” : “1873-491X (Electronic)\r0020-7489 (Linking)”, “ISSN” : “00207489”, “PMID” : “27045561”, “abstract” : “Objectives: To identify the characteristics of shift work that have an effect on employee’s performance (including job performance, productivity, safety, quality of care delivered, errors, adverse events and client satisfaction) and wellbeing (including burnout, job satisfaction, absenteeism, intention to leave the job) in all sectors including healthcare. Design: A scoping review of the literature was undertaken. Data sources: We searched electronic databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, SCOPUS) to identify primary quantitative studies.

Review methods: The search was conducted between January and March 2015. Studies were drawn from all occupational sectors (i.e. health and non health), meeting the inclusion criteria: involved participants aged u226518 who have been working shifts or serve as control group for others working shifts, exploring the association of characteristics of shift work with at least one of the selected outcomes. Reference lists from retrieved studies were checked to identify any further studies. Results: 35 studies were included in the review; 25 studies were performed in the health sector. A variety of shift work characteristics are associated with compromised employee’s performance and wellbeing. Findings from large multicentre studies highlight that shifts of 12 h or longer are associated with jeopardised outcomes. Working more than 40 h per week is associated with adverse events, while no conclusive evidence was found regarding working a ‘Compressed Working Week’; working overtime was associated with decreased job performance. Working rotating shifts was associated with worse job performance outcomes, whilst fixed night shifts appeared to enable resynchronisation. However, job satisfaction of employees working fixed nights was reduced. Timely breaks had a positive impact on employee fatigue and alertness, whilst quick returns between shifts appeared to increase pathologic fatigue. The effect of shift work characteristics on outcomes in the studies reviewed is consistent across occupational sectors. Conclusions: This review highlighted the complexity that encompasses shift work, but many studies do not account for this complexity. While some consistent associations emerge (e.g. 12 h shifts and jeopardised outcomes), it is not always possible to conclude that results are not confounded by unmeasured factors.”, “author” : [ { “dropping-particle” : “”, “family” : “Dall’Ora”, “given” : “Chiara”, “non-dropping-particle” : “”, “parse-names” : false, “suffix” : “” }, { “dropping-particle” : “”, “family” : “Ball”, “given” : “Jane”, “non-dropping-particle” : “”, “parse-names” : false, “suffix” : “” }, { “dropping-particle” : “”, “family” : “Recio-Saucedo”, “given” : “Alejandra”, “non-dropping-particle” : “”, “parse-names” : false, “suffix” : “” }, { “dropping-particle” : “”, “family” : “Griffiths”, “given” : “Peter”, “non-dropping-particle” : “”, “parse-names” : false, “suffix” : “” } ], “container-title” : “International Journal of Nursing Studies”, “id” : “ITEM-1”, “issued” : { “date-parts” : [ [ “2016” ] ] }, “page” : “12-27”, “title” : “Characteristics of shift work and their impact on employee performance and wellbeing: A literature review”, “type” : “article”, “volume” : “57” }, “uris” : [ “http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=ed729fb9-fe76-4665-b17f-986cef6f32c0” ] } ], “mendeley” : { “formattedCitation” : “(Dallu2019Ora, Ball, Recio-Saucedo, & Griffiths, 2016)”, “plainTextFormattedCitation” : “(Dallu2019Ora, Ball, Recio-Saucedo, & Griffiths, 2016)”, “previouslyFormattedCitation” : “(Dallu2019Ora, Ball, Recio-Saucedo, & Griffiths, 2016)” }, “properties” : { }, “schema” : “https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json” }(Dall’Ora, Ball, Recio-Saucedo, & Griffiths, 2016). Therefore, it is important for the Health Services Administration personnel to ensure that the working hours and overtime are accommodative to all concerned.
THESIS: Healthcare staff should avoid long shifts and overtime because it results in accidents, injury, and death.
Three Supporting Elements
Accidents
Injury
Death
LOCATION AND TYPES OF RESOURCES
Location:
Local library
Medical institutions
Internet
Types:
BooksNursing leadership and management for patient safety and quality care by Murray, Elizabeth J.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Calhoun, A. W., Boone, M. C., Dauer, A. K., Campbell, D. R., & Montgomery, V. L. (2014). Using Simulation to Investigate the Impact of Hours Worked on Task Performance in an Intensive Care Unit. American Journal of Critical Care, 23, 5, 387-395.
Caruso, C. C. (2014). Negative Impacts of Shiftwork and Long Work Hours. Rehabilitation Nursing : The Official Journal of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, 39(1), 16–25.
Dall’Ora, C., Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Simon, M., & Aiken, L. H. (2015). Association of 12 h shifts and nurses’ job satisfaction, burnout and intention to leave: findings from a cross-sectional study of 12 European countries. BMJ Open, 5(9), e008331.
Griffiths, P., Dall, O. C., Simon, M., Ball, J., Lindqvist, R., Rafferty, A.-M., Schoonhoven, L. (2014). Nurses’ Shift Length and Overtime Working in 12 European Countries: The Association With Perceived Quality of Care and Patient Safety. Medical Care Philadelphia-, 52, 11, 975-981.
Medical Journals
Frontiers of Health Services Management
Health Affairs
Health Care Management Review
Health Services Research
JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association)
Journal of Health & Human Services Administration
Journal of Healthcare Management
CHALLENGES TO THE RESEARCH: While there are enough published reports on the effects of long working hours and their effect on patient safety. The main challenge is to find an all-inclusive solution to this problem.

Reference
ADDIN Mendeley Bibliography CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Recio-Saucedo, A., & Griffiths, P. (2016). Characteristics of shift work and their impact on employee performance and wellbeing: A literature review. International Journal of Nursing Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.01.007