Factors Influencing Quality of Nursing Care during the Night Shifts

Abstract

Introduction: The night shift causes physical and psychological effects on nurses. Fatigue, stress, anxiety, sleep disturbances and negative perception of the work environment can affect the quality of care.

Objective: To identify the conditions related to the quality of nursing care during night shifts in hospitals.

Methods: A systematic review was carried out according to PRISMA criteria. As a common strategy in the consulted databases, the combination of the following keywords and Booleans was used: ("Quality of Care") AND ("Nurse "OR "Nurses") AND ("Night shift "OR "Shift"). The PubMed, Cinahl, Scopus and Cochrane databases were explored. Trials, cross-sectional studies, reviews and qualitative studies between 2009 and 2018 were included. Those that did not meet content requirements and methodological quality assessment criteria described a priori were excluded. Twenty papers were included.

Conclusions: For most authors, the quality of night care is lower than during the day and may be affected by an excess of working hours, health perception, fatigue, sleep quality, lower nurse-patient ratio, lower institutional support and lower professional satisfaction. The most frequently used quality indicators were incidence of pressure ulcers, patient identification errors, medication errors, communication errors, unperformed care, professional demotivation, depersonalization and institutional retention. The heterogeneity of the studies may increase bias in the results. Many of the indicators described are assessed by perceptions, occasionally using objective methods. The identification of key determinants in the quality of night care allows for high-impact initiatives at the institutional level.