Health Problems and Social Implications of Night Shift Duties among Nurses in a General Hospital in Uyo, Southern Nigeria

Background: Night shift duty distorts the natural sleep pattern of those who engage in it with attendant consequences. The aim of this study was to identify the health problems and social implications of night shift duties among nurses in a general hospital in Uyo, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional descriptive study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic characteristics, job history and common complaints resulting from night shift. A sample of 143 nurses was used for the study. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Level of significance was set at 0.5.

Results: The mean age of respondents was 32.86±12.06 years. Majority, 132 (92.3%) were females, 54.5% were single and 63.6% had less than 5 years working experience. Majority, 131 (91.6%) were on rotating night shift. Up to 42% reported sleeping <3 hours after night duty. The top 5 problems reported were fatigue, (65%), headache, (50.3%), body pains, (48.2%), reduced family time, (41.3%) and falling asleep on duty, (25.2%). Fatigue was highest among those aged 51-60 years (p<0.05). Twenty eight, (19.6%) felt their work performance during the night was less than day duties, while 80 (55.9%) felt more fatigued and 78 (54.5%) reported breaking down more frequently after night than day duties. The proportion breaking down increased from 37.5% among those who did <5 nights monthly to 66.7% among those who did >10. The difference was however not significant (p>0.05).

Conclusion: It was advocated that health education on good sleep hygiene and introduction of naps during duty hours may be useful in reducing the negative impact of night shift duties.