Sleep and psychological stress at work among shift-working caregivers

本研究旨在探讨轮班工作的护理人员工作压力的可能影响因素，并阐明有效的职业健康策略。我们的数据表明，这些员工经常把与他人（如同事、上级）的人际关系视为职业压力的最大因素之一。考虑到识别他人情绪的能力会影响工作场所人际关系的状态，这项研究针对的是痴呆症病房中轮班工作的护理人员，因为这方面的技能非常重要。研究结果表明，夜间工作和/或死亡时的护理工作量增加了对其他情绪面孔类别的厌恶面孔的敏感性。除此之外，在这种情况下，睡眠质量明显变差，更容易疲劳。因此，需要有效的策略来管理工作负载。

The study aimed to examine possible contributing factors to stress at work among shift-working caregivers and to illuminate an effective strategy for occupational health. Our data suggested that these workers often regard human relationships with others (e.g., coworkers, superiors) as one of the biggest factors to occupational stress. Given that the ability to recognize others' emotions affects the status of human relations in workplaces, this study targeted shift-working caregivers in a dementia ward because skill in that arena is very important. The findings showed that workloads from night work and/or care at the time of death increased sensitivity toward aversive face among other emotional face categories. Besides this, significantly worse quality of sleep and more fatigue were found in the situation. Thus, effective strategies for managing workloads are needed.