Abstract
Objective: The purpose is to identify the usefulness of the measurement as a factors of incident occurrence by measuring nurses' subjective scores of fatigue, sleep, and mood, prospectively and continuously over a period.
Method: Nurses working at Hospital A were asked to fill out a survey during each of their shifts over a one-month period. On the first survey, participants provided information on their basic attributes. Subsequent surveys asked the nurses to indicate their incident experience and subjective feelings of fatigue, sleep, and mood at the beginning and end of each shift using a visual analog scale. Statistical analysis included t-tests, paired t-tests.
Results: We analyzed 207 nurses in 17 departments. There was a significant difference (p = 0.015) between years of departmental experience and incident experience (mean, 3.31 years for those with experience and 4.42 years for those without). There was also a significant difference (p = 0.022) in fatigue at the beginning of the day shift (mean, 51.20 points for those with experience and 60.06 points for those without).
Conclusions: It was suggested that measuring nurses' subjective scores of fatigue at the beginning of the day shift may be a predictor of the occurrence of incidents during this shift.
