Investigating shift work and mental workload on fatigue of intensive care unit nurses

The importance of examining shift work, especially in the health sector, is one of the harmful and irreparable consequences that is attributed to it. Shifts, especially night shifts, lead to fatigue and consequent adverse effects on health, alertness and performance. The aim of this study was to investigate shift work and mental workload on fatigue of intensive care unit nurses.

In this analytical and cross-sectional study, 144 nurses of intensive care units in three hospitals of Shiraz participated by census sampling. The SP (Samn-Perelli) Mental Fatigue Scale and NASA Mental Workload were completed for 2 weeks at the beginning and end of each shift.

The results showed that the amount of mental fatigue and mental workload were significantly associated with the type of work shifts (P <0.05). Also, between the average hours of sleep during the last two weeks (r = -0.24, P <0.01), the average mental fatigue and mental workload (P <0.01, r = 0.25), lack of leisure time (P <0.01, r = -0.22), and having a regular exercise program (P <0.01, r = -0.3), were significantly associated with mental fatigue.

The mental workload and shift schedule affect the fatigue of intensive care unit nurses. But there seem to be other factors that affect nurseschr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))) fatigue. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of lifestyle and personal factors and its effect on fatigue.