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Aim: To gain a deeper understanding of what is important to nurses when thinking about shift patterns and the organisation of working time. Design: A cross‐sectional survey of nursing staff working across the UK and Ireland collected quantitative and qualitative responses. Methods: We recruited from two National Health Service Trusts and through an open call via trade union membership, online/print nursing profession magazines and social media. Worked versus preferred shift length/pattern, satisfaction and choice over shift patterns and nurses' views on aspects related to work and life (when working short, long, rotating shifts) were analysed with comparisons of proportions of agreement and crosstabulation. Qualitative responses on important factors related to shift preferences were analysed with inductive thematic analysis. Results: Eight hundred and seventy‐three survey responses were collected. When nurses worked long shifts and rotating shifts, lower proportions reported being satisfied with their shifts and working their preferred shift length and pattern. Limited advantages were realised when comparing different shift types; however, respondents more frequently associated 'low travel costs' and 'better ability to do paid overtime' with long shifts and 'healthy diet/exercise' with short shifts; aspects related to rotating shifts often had the lowest proportions of agreement. In the qualitative analysis, three themes were developed: 'When I want to work', 'Impacts to my life outside work' and 'Improving my work environment'. Reasons for nurses' shift preferences were frequently related to nurses' priorities outside of work, highlighting the importance of organising schedules that support a good work‐life balance. Relevance to Clinical Practice: General scheduling practices like adhering to existing shift work guidelines, using consistent and predictable shift patterns and facilitating flexibility over working time were identified by nurses as enablers for their preferences and priorities. These practices warrant meaningful consideration when establishing safe and efficient nurse rosters. Patient or Public Contribution: This survey was developed and tested with a diverse group of stakeholders, including nursing staff, patients, union leads and ward managers. Reporting Method: The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies (STROBE) checklist for cross‐sectional studies was used to guide reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifts of 12 hours or longer are common in nursing services within general hospital wards. Concerns have been raised about their safety, but previous research has mostly used staff-reported measures of quality and safety and has occurred in general hospital settings only. This study aims to measure the association between the use of 12+ hour shifts in nursing staff (including registered nurses, healthcare support workers or nursing assistants, and nursing associates) and the rate of patient incidents in mental health and community hospitals. This is a longitudinal study using routinely collected data from two mental health and community NHS trusts in the South of England. We accessed rosters of nursing staff and patient incident data from April 2018 to March 2021. We extracted 1,018,971 shifts and excluded those not worked by nursing staff, with a final sample of 898,143 shifts. We extracted 53,078 incidents. We only included incidents that involved patients and that occurred in wards. Our final sample consisted of 38,373 patient incidents. We linked all patient incidents and nurses' worked shifts at the ward-day level. Depending on the distribution of incident rates, we used either negative binomial mixed-effects models or Poisson mixed-effect models to investigate the association between the proportion of 12+ hour shifts and all patient incidents, violence against staff, falls, self-injury, disruptive behaviour, and medication management incidents at the ward-day level. We found a relationship between 12+ hour shifts and the incident rate. Compared to days in wards with no long shifts, increasing the proportion of long shifts was initially associated with a small increase in the overall rate of incidents, but the rate increased sharply as the proportion of long shifts was above 70%. Rates of self-injury increased more steadily as the proportion of long shifts increased. The mandatory implementation of long shifts should be discouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the evidence on nurses' experiences and preferences around shift patterns in the international literature. Data sources: Electronic databases (CINHAL, MEDLINE and Scopus) were searched to identify primary studies up to April 2021. Methods: Papers reporting qualitative or quantitative studies exploring the subjective experience and/or preferences of nurses around shift patterns were considered, with no restrictions on methods, date or setting. Key study features were extracted including setting, design and results. Findings were organised thematically by key features of shift work. Results: 30 relevant papers were published between 1993 and 2021. They contained mostly qualitative studies where nurses reflected on their experience and preferences around shift patterns. The studies reported on three major aspects of shift work: shift work per se (i.e. the mere fact of working shift), shift length, and time of shift. Across all three aspects of shift work, nurses strive to deliver high quality of care despite facing intense working conditions, experiencing physical and mental fatigue or exhaustion. Preference for or adaptation to a specific shift pattern is facilitated when nurses are consulted before its implementation or have a certain autonomy to self-roster. Days off work tend to mitigate the adverse effects of working (short, long, early or night) shifts. How shift work and patterns impact on experiences and preferences seems to also vary according to nurses' personal characteristics and circumstances (e.g. age, caring responsibilities, years of experience). Conclusions: Shift patterns are often organised in ways that are detrimental to nurses' health and wellbeing, their job performance, and the patient care they provide. Further research should explore the extent to which nurses' preferences are considered when choosing or being imposed shift work patterns. Research should also strive to better describe and address the constraints nurses face when it comes to choice around shift patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]