Conceptualizing nurses' night work : an inductive content analysis

Aim: To develop a conceptual model of nurse-identified effects of night work. Background: Studies designed to predict shift work tolerance are frequently unsuccessful in incorporating the intersections between physiological, psychological and social issues involved in such work. Where nurses have been the participants of such studies they have rarely been involved in ways that would allow their points of view to be heard directly. Consequently, the issues of personal importance to nurses as shift and night workers in 24/7 organizations are rarely identified in discussions about that work. Design: Inductive qualitative content analysis. Methods: Survey responses were provided by 1355 night working RNs employed in a state/public health system in 2012. Data derived from open-ended questions about nurses' own perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of night work are analysed here. Results: Four main categories providing a descriptive summary of the major elements of nurses' night work were identified: 'Lives' and 'Bodies' of night working nurses, the 'Work' of nurses at night and the nurses' 'Workplace' at night. Conclusion: The work nurses undertake at night, and the demanding organizational and clinical environments where they do this are uniquely related to the time of day that this work occurs. The Nurses' Night Work model deconstructs the established binary considerations of the lives and bodies of workers to permit a 24/7-based consideration of nurses' night work and its frequently unacknowledged relationship with the day work required of the same nurses when working a rapidly but randomly rotating shift work schedule.