Relationship between sleeping on the night shift and recovery from work among nursing workers - the influence of domestic work

P>Aim. This paper is a report of a study on the association between sleep patterns during work nights and recovery from work among nursing workers, considering domestic work hours. Background. Several hospitals allow nursing workers to sleep during the night shift, but this is rarely evaluated from the workers` health perspective. The need for recovery from work concept can be useful for testing the impact of night work on sleep. Recovery is not a problem if workers have enough time to recover between periods of work. Therefore, domestic work would be likely to interfere in the recovery process. Methods. This cross-sectional study was carried out at three hospitals in 2005-2006, through a comprehensive questionnaire. All nursing teams engaged in assistance to patients were invited to participate. Analyses included female night workers with no incidence of insomnia. Participants (n = 396) were classified into those who did not sleep during night shifts, those who slept for up to 2 hours and those who slept for 2-3 hours. Results. Binomial logistic regression analysis showed that sleeping on the job for 2-3 hours during night shifts is related to a better recovery from work provided the workers do not undergo long domestic work hours. Conclusions. Being allowed to sleep at work during night shifts seemed to contribute to, but was not enough to guarantee, a good recovery from work in the studied population. Recommendations to deal with sleep-deprivation among night workers should consider the complexity of gender roles on the recovery process.

What aspects of shiftwork influence off-shift well-being of healthcare workers?

Characteristics of shiftwork schedules have implications for off-shift well-being. We examined the extent to which several shift characteristics (e.g., shift length, working sundays) are associated with three aspects of off-shift well-being: work-to-family conflict, physical well-being, and mental wellbeing. We also investigated whether these relationships differed in four nations. The Survey of Work and Time was completed by 906 healthcare professionals located in Australia, Brazil, Croatia, and the USA. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses supported the hypothesis that shiftwork characteristics account for significant unique variance in all three measures of well-being beyond that accounted for by work and family demands and personal characteristics. The patterns of regression weights indicated that particular shiftwork characteristics have differential relevance to indices of work-to-family conflict, physical well-being, and mental well-being. Our findings suggest that healthcare organizations should carefully consider the implications of shiftwork characteristics for off-shift well-being. Furthermore, although our findings did not indicate national differences in the nature of relationships between shift characteristics and well-being, shiftwork characteristics and demographics for healthcare professionals differ in systematic ways among nations; as such, effective solutions may be context-specific. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An investigation of the activation process of high temperature shift catalyst

The aim of this work is to address the activation process of a high temperature shift (HTS) catalyst, composed of Fe2O3/Cr2O3/CuO, by analyzing it before activation (HTS-V) and after activation (HTS-A) using complementary characterization techniques. The textural and morphological characterizations were done by transmission electron rnicroscopy (TEM) and nitrogen physisorption at 77 K; crystallographic structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD); electronic structure was analyzed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and the chemical composition of the catalyst`s surface was obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The investigation pointed out that the HTS-V catalyst presents good textural and morphological properties, which are not deeply affected by the activation process (sample HTS-A). The iron oxide phase in the HTS-V catalyst is hematite whereas in HTS-A catalyst is magnetite with Fe2+/Fe3+ ratio close to the expected value (0.5). For both samples, the Cr ions seem to be incorporated in the iron oxide lattice with higher concentration at particle surface. In the HTS-V catalyst, the Cu ions have oxidation number II and occupy in average distorted octahedral sites; after the activation, the Cu ions are partially reduced, suggesting that the reduction of the Cu species is complex. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.