Night Shift Nursing Education and Effects on Job Satisfaction

This is excellent information. Hopefully hospitals and schools will take notice of studies like these. Circadian rhythms are not to be trifled with, and disruption has very real and significant effects.

I think we all understand that it's counterproductive and thoughtless not to have inservice offerings on all shifts proportionate to the number of people who work them. Studies have shown that for years. However, I have some questions about your methods and conclusions that perhaps you could clarify. I think your analysis and conclusions sections got cut here?The tables do not appear here. Could you clarify their contents?How many of your 26 respondents were known current night shift workers at the home care company, and how many anonymous and therefore unverifiable were from an online poll? What were their numbers, ages, and years of employment, and years of experience of each? These might be significant variables in job satisfaction. These data may also be in your tables, sorry.What were the factors determining dissatisfaction with working night shift? How important were they in rank to availability of inservice education? For example, did new grads working nights because it's the only shift available to them rank lack of inservices higher as a factor than sleep disruption in general, lack of quality time with family/friends, lack of support, short staffing, or other factors? These may appear in your tables but I can't tell.How did you control for rotating shifts, or were all night shift workers full-time nights only?Thanks for an interesting read. I look forward to your clarifications.

[QUOTE=GrnTea;7690245]I think we all understand that it's counterproductive and thoughtless not to have inservice offerings on all shifts proportionate to the number of people who work them. Studies have shown that for years. However, I have some questions about your methods and conclusions that perhaps you could clarify. I think your analysis and conclusions sections got cut here?Hi GrnTea - You ask some excellent questions. Yes, unfortunately, my Analysis and Conclusions sections did get cut by the Admins. My school (Western Governors University) did not allow me to mention any facility names, or even the fact that my "online" respondents were/are members of Allnurses. Perhaps, now that WGU approved my thesis, I can edit it to mention Allnurses.Your Question 1: Nine of the 26 respondents were night shift nurses at the home care company. The rest were/are members of Allnurses. Question 2: The tables do show ages of the respondents in 10-year blocks, length of employment as a nurse, and educational level. Question 3: The Job Satisfaction survey was an 8-item Likert scale tool. The respondents picked from one of five levels of agreement with each question. The eight items I used were: My facility values individual employees; I have access to information needed to do my job; My manager keeps me well informed; My employer treats me with respect; I enjoy working here; Management supports my professional growth; Employer-required competencies are helpful at the bedside; I feel important to the health care team. Every participant answered all the questions.I also asked several demographic questions about plans to pursue a higher degree or specialty certifications, and how likely would one attend Annual Competency courses if they were offered at night. The majority of my respondents have been nurses for ten years and about half have at least a Bachelor's degree. I also gave the Job Satisfaction survey to 26 day shift nurses, both from the home care company and places I've worked as a traveler, staff, or registry. Your Question 4: Only 2 people replied that they worked "something else" other than 12-hour days or 12-hour nights. My questionnaire asked what shift was mainly worked, ie., 12-hour days, 12-hour nights, or "something else." I got 2 of the online respondents who answered "something else." I didn't question further if those were people whose shifts rotated between days and nights. I did not exclude part-time or per diem nurses from the online questionnaire, but I did exclude per diem nurses from my in-person study because of time constraints (theirs and mine).Many places I've worked in California, Kansas, and Missouri do NOT offer in-services and Annual Competency validations during night shift. My first facility, a very large teaching Magnet-designated hospital, did not offer any in-services during nights while I was there.I hope that answers your questions

I may have missed it, but how did you determine how important lack/presence of night-shift educational offerings was, as related to job satisfaction? I mean, were the night workers reporting that it was the most important factor in their job satisfaction ratings, middling, or not so much? if your hypothesis is that it was very important to job satisfaction, how do you know? And how can you be sure that the two-thirds of your respondents were really night shift RNs? Only 6 live respondents in home care (and "other places"-- what kind?) doesn't say "Generalizable to hospital setting" to me, but perhaps you had some more info that was cut.Thanks so much for responding. MAybe you'll be in a position to do a more controlled study when you're a full-tie inservice person!