Nurse managers' perception of night-shift napping: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background: Night-shift work often results in sleep deprivation, and this in turn results in fatigue that jeopardizes both nurse and patient safety. Napping is considered a viable deterrent to fatigue, yet hospital administration has been slow to adopt napping.

Objectives: To identify nurse managers' knowledge and approval of napping practices for nurses on night shifts.

Methodology: Nurse managers at nine Jordanian hospitals (n = 129) were surveyed using an Arabic version of a questionnaire previously used in a Canadian study. Descriptive statistics were used to describe results, and a one-way ANOVA was used to determine if relationships existed among nurse manager's approval of napping and nurse demographic characteristics.

Results: The majority of nurse managers (61%) knew nurses were napping during breaks. However, the managers reported there was no written policy for napping. A majority thought there were more benefits to napping than drawbacks. Some 55% of nurse managers recognized fatigue as a cause of errors or incidents regarding patient safety, and 40% perceived fatigue to be a factor in staff injuries.

Conclusion: This study supports an urgent need for shared responsibility among nursing administration, and bedside nurses to develop evidence-based programs to counteract the effects of nurse fatigue.

Keywords: fatigue; napping; napping policy; night shift; nurse managers; patient safety; sleep deprivation.