Staff Nurse Fatigue and Patient Safety

描述（应用摘要）：限制强制性 护士加班费目前在14个州的立法机构悬而未决。 不知会否 这项立法是必要的，以保护病人的安全，或者如果它是一个副产品， 医院护士对工作条件的不满 以来 注册护士不受联邦工资和工时法的约束， 加班费，医院工作人员护士的工作时间鲜为人知 以及长时间轮班对病人护理的影响。 研究一再表明，当 工人长时间工作和/或在夜间工作。 很少有人知道的 当护士每小时工作超过8小时时， 班 患者的夜间安全尤其令人担忧，因为至少有三个 小型研究表明，大约四分之一的护士工作， 轮流或直接夜班报告说，在照顾病人的同时， 对患者 因此，本研究将解决工作人员护士疲劳和病人的安全， 两种方式。 研究的第一阶段将侧重于描述 护士的工作时间和这些时间对病人安全的影响1） 描述医院护理人员的工作模式， 工作，轮班时间和加班量; 2）确定如何 护士加班多少，他们加班的频率， 发生加班（时间），以及是否要求护士加班;以及3） 确定错误与工作时间之间是否存在关联 医院护士 第二阶段将涉及设计和测试一个 护士疲劳对策计划。 该反制方案将 涉及其他行业使用的战略，以尽量减少不利影响， 疲劳，睡眠不足和昼夜节律紊乱，并将进行评估 通过测试前和测试后的警觉性和睡眠/觉醒模式的测量。

DESCRIPTION (APPLICATION ABSTRACT): Legislation to restrict mandatory overtime for nurses in now pending in 14 State legislatures. No one knows if this legislation is needed to protect patient safety or if it is an outgrowth of hospital nurses' dissatisfaction with their working conditions. Since registered nurses are exempt from the federal wage and hour laws governing overtime pay, little is known about the hours worked by hospital staff nurses and the effect of extended work shifts on patient care. Studies have repeatedly shown decreased productivity and increased errors when workers work for prolonged periods and/or at night. Little is known about the effects on patient safety when nurses work for more than eight hours per shift. Patient safety at night is of particular concern, since at least three small studies have shown that approximately one-fourth of nurses working rotating or straight night shifts report struggling to stay awake while caring for patients. Therefore, this study will address staff nurse fatigue and patient safety in two ways. The first phase of the study will focus on describing the hours worked by nurses and the effects of these hours on patient safety by 1) describing the work patterns of hospital staff nurses in terms of hours worked, duration of shifts, and amount of overtime worked; 2) determining how much overtime nurses are working, how often they work overtime, when the overtime occurs (time), and if nurses are required to work overtime; and 3) determining if there is an association between errors and the hours worked by hospital nurses. The second phase will involve designing and testing a fatigue countermeasures program for nurses. This countermeasures program will involved strategies used by other industries to minimize the adverse effects of fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian rhythm disruption, and will be evaluated by pre- and post-test measurements of vigilance and sleep/wake patterns.