Effects of Work Demands and Rewards of Nurses on Exhaustion and Sleep Disturbance: Focusing on Comparison With Other Shift Workers

Aims and Background: Shift work nurses' heavy work demands and insufficient rewards were leading causes of nurses' turnover and personnel instability. However, their workload and rewards have been insufficiently investigated. This study examined shift work nurses' work demands and rewards and compared them with other shift workers, particularly police, fire and prison workers. It also reported their degree of exhaustion owing to work and sleep disturbance. Design: A secondary data analysis was conducted using cross-sectional data from the Korean Working Conditions Survey collected in 2020. Methods: The instrument was based on the European Working Condition Survey. The shift workers were selected as participants. The sample included 169 registered nurses and 94 police, fire and prison workers. The Work demands were examined according to overtime work, work intensity and emotional workload. The Reward, including leadership, was evaluated using eight items. The dependent variables, exhaustion and sleep disturbance, were measured using two and three items, respectively. Results: Nurses' average weekly working hours were 41.93. This value was significantly lower than that of police, fire and prison workers (46.76) (p < 0.001). However, nurses' overall work demands and the sub-categories of job intensity and emotional workload were higher. For the reward index, nurses' mean score was 61.14, lower than the average of 67.03 for police, fire and prison workers (p = 0.009). Finally, work intensity and emotional workload increase exhaustion and sleep disturbance. In contrast, rewards decrease these effects. Conclusions: Appropriate rewards should be offered considering registered nurses' excessive job intensity and emotional workload. Rewards could be financial, such as overtime or night shift allowances, or non-monetary, such as expanding promotion opportunities. Public Contribution: Nursing policies to mandate adequate staffing levels to relieve work demands and monitor the provision of sufficient rewards will also be required.