Factors affecting the psychomotor vigilance of nurses working night shift

Shifts and long working hours decrease the psychomotor vigilance of healthcare workers especially when working night shifts. Working night shifts adversely affects nurses' health and impacts patient safety.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the psychomotor vigilance of nurses working night shift.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with 83 nurses who were working in a private hospital in Istanbul and voluntarily participated in this study between April 25 and May 30, 2022. Data were collected using "Descriptive Characteristics Form," "Psychomotor Vigilance Task," "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index," and "Epworth Sleepiness Scale." The "STROBE checklist" for cross-sectional studies was utilized in order to report the findings of the study.

When time-dependent variation of the nurses' psychomotor vigilance task performances on the night shift was examined, it was observed that the nurses' mean reaction time and number of lapses increased at the end of the night shift. Age, smoking, physical activity, daily water consumption, daytime sleepiness, and sleep quality were found as the factors affecting nurses' psychomotor vigilance.

The psychomotor vigilance task performances of nurses working night shift are affected by age and a variety of behavioral factors.

Suggestions for nursing policy include the implementation of workplace health promotion programs in order to increase the attention level of nurses in order to ensure employee and patient health and safety and create a healthy working environment.