Effect of Night Shift Work in Clinical Laboratories on Pediatric Complete Blood Count Results

There has been much research into the impact of shift systems on clinicians and nurses, but little research into quality control in clinical laboratories. This topic focuses on assessing the impact of shift systems on clinical laboratory scientists.

A total of 34,955 CBCs from pediatric patients who visited the hospital during night-time hours over a period of three years were selected for analysis. The quality of routine blood tests was evaluated using four indica-tors: red blood cell count, white blood cell count, platelet count, and hemoglobin levels. The effects of gender, years of experience, and length of the night shift on test results were evaluated separately for each clinical laboratory scientist.

The results showed that the gender and years of experience of the clinical laboratory scientists did not affect the CBC results. However, a significant impact was observed as the number of hours worked on night shifts increased.

The findings of this study suggest that the night shift schedule of clinical laboratory scientists can have an impact on the accuracy of pediatric CBCs. It is essential for healthcare institutions to consider the length of night shifts for clinical laboratory scientists and implement measures to minimize the impact on test results.