Exploring the impact of 12-hour shifts on nurse fatigue in intensive care units

Aim: To assess 12-h shift Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses' fatigue and identify the associated demographic factors.

Background: Literature reveals inconsistencies as to whether 12-h shifts decrease or increase nurse fatigue levels.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 67 ICU nurses working 12-h shifts was undertaken to determine their fatigue levels in two hospitals. The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion/Recovery Scale (OFER), Spearman's correlation, ANOVA, t-tests, and Chi-Square were used for analyses.

Results: 57 out of 67 participants experienced low to moderate chronic fatigue; 36 of those exhibited low to moderate acute fatigue levels; 46 reported low to moderate inter-shift fatigue. Age (ρ = 0.03, r² = -0.28), number of family dependents (ρ = 0.03, r² = -0.27), and years of nursing experience (ρ = 0.03, r² = -0.27) were moderately negatively correlated with acute fatigue, while frequency of exercise per week (ρ = 0.01, r² = -0.31) was moderately negatively correlated with chronic fatigue. Hospital A had higher chronic fatigue levels than Hospital B. Age (ρ < 0.01), age group (ρ = 0.03), shift schedule (ρ = 0.02), and nursing experience (ρ = 0.03) were significantly related to the difference in chronic fatigue levels between the two hospitals.

Conclusions: More than half of the 12-h shift ICU nurses studied in both hospitals had low to moderate fatigue levels. Age, number of family dependents, years of nursing experience, and frequency of exercise per week were identified as key factors associated with fatigue. The difference in chronic fatigue levels between hospitals suggests that implementing more support for younger and/or less experienced nurses, better strategies for retaining more experienced nurses, and fewer rotating shifts could help reduce fatigue.