Optimal night shift management is an engaging subject that is worthy of further research due to the numerous difficulties inherent in running a successful night shift. This essay will add to the existing literature both with a sophisticated analysis of the different aspects involved in managing the night shift and a detailed proposal suggesting the ways of ensuring optimal management techniques for the night shift. The implications of a biblical worldview on perceptions about nurses generally and the night shift, more particularly, have been analyzed at length. However, there is, in truth, no correct answer to the topic. This research contains a great many implications for my professional future in the health care industry. It is apparent that current night shift practices are in need of an overhaul and that a biblical worldview is not always the preferred option for health care professionals.
There is a wide variety of characteristics and challenges to the night shift, which demand particular hiring, firing, motivating, and training techniques. A review of the literature on the subject reveals that numerous studies have been conducted on specific aspects of these challenges and characteristics. According to Da Silva Borges and Fischer (2009) and Geiger-Brown et al. (2012), among the most crucial of these challenges are the potential risks to patients that arise from long night shifts. According to the conducted study, work during the night shift, regardless of napping, affects the perceived sleep quality of nurses, the duration of sleep, their sleep to wakefulness cycle, and alertness during work hours (Da Silva Borges and Fischer, 2009). This issue is exacerbated by the prevalence of inter-shift fatigue – leftover tiredness from previous shifts – caused by poor scheduling, often due to insufficient staff members and stretched resources in hospitals (Geiger-Brown et al., 2012). High fatigue has been observed to lead to high caffeine intake, which has its own recorded implications for long-term wellbeing and healthy sleep patterns (Geiger-Brown et al., 2012). Tiredness and fatigue are thus shown to be the most prevalent issues affecting performance levels during night shifts, and inefficient managerial practices often exacerbate them, worsening the problem.
There appears, at first, to be a relatively simple solution to the parallel problems of fatigue and poor scheduling on night shifts. Increasing the number of nurses and staff during night shifts, and redistributing the work among more people, thus lessening the number of changes per nurse, seems logical. However, hospitals are often held back by a lack of funding and staff numbers too low to truly handle all the work smoothly and without exhaustion and overtime (Ferguson et al., 2021). The twin problems of fatigue and personnel scheduling issues among night shift general staff and nurses have thus persisted for decades (Xu & Hall, 2021). While the severity of scheduling issues differs from hospital to hospital, the root of the problem and the subsequent solution both appear to be tied to increased funding for hospitals. However, an infusion of funds will not address the prevalence of scheduling issues observed in so many night shifts in the long term in a meaningful way (Xu & Hall, 2021). Short-term solutions are not sufficient for addressing an issue inherent in current night shift management practices on such a vast scale. Instead, in order for positive results to be felt by health care professionals around the country, the solution must include structural change on a national, not merely hospital by hospital or inner-state scale. The introduction of effective management techniques for managing the night shift on a national scale is the proposed solution.
A specific training program that will provide meaningful learning for professionals is needed to truly raise the efficiency of night shifts. However, it is impossible to implement an effective program without first evaluating the optimal length of night shifts required for efficient work (Wilkinson, 2007). This must be determined and implemented fully before staff can be re-trained and the learning program updated. Another topic that must be considered is the implications for the role of gender in causing more significant tiredness and more unsatisfactory performance during the night shift, as suggested in a study by Zion et al. (2018). The study found that increased levels of fatigue were found in nurses with more numerous families and early chronotypes (Zion et al., 2018). Subsequently, it is apparent that certain personality traits and biographical details affect overall performance during night shifts and should accordingly be evaluated when assigning night shifts. Overall, factors such as optimal night shift length for efficient work and relevant personal details of nurses must be included in the evaluation process when assembling and attempting to institute a specific training program that will offer meaningful results.
The goals and objectives for the training of night shift nurses and wider staff are reflected in the current difficulties they face on their shifts. Personnel must be given extensive training on recognizing and managing their fatigue levels to ensure optimum efficiency and patient care. The rationale for the need for the training can be found in the above literature that describes the many challenges faced by nighttime shift workers that so acutely affect overall night shift performance. Other studies, such as that by Zion et al. (2018), conclude that the onus for developing effective strategies for maintaining alertness is on the individual. However, the widespread complaint of increased fatigue among night shift nurses and staff indicates that it is not an individual issue and thus must be addressed on a broader and more structured scale. The expected outcomes for the training include a workforce trained for grueling nighttime shifts and capable of observing and managing personal and emotional fatigue in a manner that does not affect their professional efficacy.
The place of faith and a biblical worldview within the medical practice can be controversial and still do not have a clear role. According to research conducted by Esqueda (2014), the view often presented both within academia and healthcare is that learning and faith come from different areas of knowledge and thus cannot exist in tandem. However, other studies propose that a biblical worldview can, in fact, serve as a bridge between learning and faith, uniting the two and allowing for the creation of a ‘comprehensive worldview’ (Esqueda, 2014, p. 91). According to this definition, a biblical worldview is a massive asset to any professional within the health care industry. However, a biblical worldview is not the only one that has been applied to the topic of nurses and the bettering of their relationships with their patients in either life or in studies (Campinha-Bacote, 2005). The world, and more specifically the United States of America, are both hugely diverse and full of all sorts of different people and values, accompanied by their various belief systems and worldviews. To pin down one particular worldview as being of higher value or resultant in higher empathy in nurses is incredibly hard.
The topic has, perhaps precisely due to the complicated subject matter, been examined extensively. And it increasingly appears that a particular worldview and set of cultural values is seen as being of optimal use in nurses. Indeed, in both nursing practices and the broader literature, cultural relativism is the worldview that is increasingly held to be one of the base tenants of caring and responsive care (Campinha-Bacote, 2005). The implication is that nurses should ‘tolerate all worldviews’ (Campinha-Bacote, 2005, p. 16) and refuse to accept that anyone is better or more correct than another so as to provide the best care possible. The impact of a biblical worldview on night shift management is thus not universal and cannot, in truth, be applied to optimal managerial practices. However, it is a hugely personal matter, and there is no indication that nurses who hold a biblical view of the world are any less caring or efficient than their counterparts.
On the whole, there is a variety of different aspects involved in managing the night shift. Among the most crucial managerial aspects of ensuring optimal organization of the night shift is the need for further regulation and restructuring of long night shifts. This will eliminate many of the risks incurred by fatigue and lackadaisical organization. Furthermore, an overhaul of the current management techniques and structures for the management of the night shift is required on a national level. The place of a biblical worldview in optimal night shift management practices is a hard one to pin down. Increasingly, it appears that cultural relativism is the preferred worldview for nurses and healthcare professionals and the one likeliest to be endorsed by healthcare professionals in the future.
References
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2005). A biblically based model of cultural competence in healthcare delivery. Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health, 11(2), 16-22. Web.
Da Silva Borges, F. N. & Fischer, F. M. (2009). Twelve-hour night shifts of healthcare workers: A risk to the patients?. Chronobiology International, 20(2), 351-360. Web.
Esqueda, O. J. (2014). Biblical worldview: The Christian higher education foundation for learning. Christian Higher Education, 13(2), 91-100. Web.
Ferguson, C., Henshall, C., & Albert, N. (2021). Global perspectives on under‐funding for clinical research training fellowships in nursing.The Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(9/10), 48-50. Web.
Geiger-Brown, J., Rogers, V. E., Trinkoff, A. M., Kane, R. L., Bausell, R. B. & Scharf, S. M. (2012). Sleep, sleepiness, fatigue, and performance of 12-hour-shift nurses. Chronobiology International, 29(2), 211-219. Web.
Xu, S. & Hall, N. G. (2021). Fatigue, personnel scheduling and operations: Review and research opportunities.European Journal of Operational Research, 293(3), 1-25. Web.
Wilkinson, R. T. (2007). How fast should the night shift rotate?. Ergonomics, 35(12), 1425-1446. Web.
Zion, N., Drach-Zahavy, A. & Shochat, T. (2018). Who is sleepier on the night shift? The influence of bio-psycho-social factors on subjective sleepiness of female nurses during the night shift. Ergonomics, 61(7), 1004-1014. Web.