![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Recommendations are provided for appropriate succession planning for the future. In this article the authors explore the current nursing shortage and the changing educational opportunities that affect recruitment of mature-aged students into tertiary-based nursing programs. However, it runs the risk of exacerbating the shortage projected to occur around the year 2020. This article postulates that graduating this high percentage of mature-aged nursing students is making a significant contribution to nursing today, helping to alleviate the current nursing shortage. The high percentage of graduating, mature-aged nursing students is helping to alleviate the current nursing shortage, but runs the risk of exacerbating the shortage projected to occur around the year 2020. Many undergraduate places at the university (in all disciplines) have been taken up by mature-aged students. In response, the Australian government funded additional undergraduate places at universities between 20 and offered financial incentives for nurses who were not currently employed to return to practice. The global nursing shortage, coupled with an ageing nursing workforce, has placed significant pressure on the Australian Government to implement strategies to meet future nursing demands as well as develop strategies to manage the current crisis. Certain nurses appear more vulnerable to sleep loss than others, as measured by attention lapses. Nurses accrue a considerable sleep debt while working successive 12-h shifts with accompanying fatigue and sleepiness. ![]() Lapsing was traitlike, with rare (39% of sample), moderate (53%), and frequent (8%) lapsers. There were no statistically significant differences in mean reaction time between day/night shift, consecutive work shift, and time into shift. Fatigue was high in one-third of nurses, with intershift fatigue (not feeling recovered from previous shift at the start of the next shift) being most prominent. There was extensive caffeine use, presumably to preserve or improve alertness. Nurses were progressively sleepier each shift, and night nurses were sleepier toward the end of the shift compared to the beginning. Sleepiness scores were low overall (3 on a 1-9 scale, with higher score indicating greater sleepiness), with 45% of nurses having high level of sleepiness (score > 7) on at least one shift. Sleep was short (mean 5.5 h) between shifts, with little difference between day shift (5.7 h) and night shift (5.4 h). Occupational fatigue (Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale ) was assessed at baseline. Sleep (actigraphy), sleepiness (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale ), and vigilance (Performance Vigilance Task ), were measured serially in 80 registered nurses (RNs). This study describes sleep, sleepiness, fatigue, and neurobehavioral performance over three consecutive 12-h (day and night) shifts for hospital registered nurses. Objectively measured sleep times have not been often reported. Nurses working 12-h shifts complain of fatigue and insufficient/poor-quality sleep. Nursing leaders should also encourage workplace cultures that respect nurses' days off and vacation time, promote nurses' prompt departure at the end of a shift, and allow nurses to refuse to work overtime without retribution. Policies regulating work hours for nurses, similar to those set for resident physicians, may be warranted. Extended shifts undermine nurses' well-being, may result in expensive job turnover, and can negatively affect patient care. Furthermore, nurses working shifts of ten hours or longer were up to two and a half times more likely than nurses working shorter shifts to experience burnout and job dissatisfaction and to intend to leave the job. However, as the proportion of hospital nurses working shifts of more than thirteen hours increased, patients' dissatisfaction with care increased. Survey data from nurses in four states showed that more than 80 percent of the nurses were satisfied with scheduling practices at their hospital. Extended work shifts of twelve hours or longer are common and even popular with hospital staff nurses, but little is known about how such extended hours affect the care that patients receive or the well-being of nurses. ![]()
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