Are long nursing shifts on hospital wards associated with sickness absence? A longitudinal retrospective observational study

Objective To investigate whether working 12 hr shifts is associated with increased sickness absence among registered nurses and health care assistants. Background Previous studies reported negative impacts on nurses' 12 hr shifts; however, these studies used cross-sectional techniques and subjective nurse-reported data. Methods A retrospective longitudinal study using routinely collected data across 32 general inpatient wards at an acute hospital in England. We used generalized linear mixed models to explore the association between shift patterns and the subsequent occurrence of short (<7 days) or long-term (>= 7 days) sickness absence. Results We analysed 601,282 shifts and 8,090 distinct episodes of sickness absence. When more than 75% of shifts worked in the past 7 days were 12 hr in length, the odds of both a short-term (adjusted odds ratio = 1.28; 95% confidence index: 1.18-1.39) and long-term sickness episode (adjusted odds ratio = 1.22; 95% confidence index: 1.08-1.37) were increased compared with working none. Conclusion Working long shifts on hospital wards is associated with a higher risk of sickness absence for registered nurses and health care assistants. Implications for Nursing Management: The higher sickness absence rates associated with long shifts could result in additional costs or loss of productivity for hospitals. The routine implementation of long shifts should be avoided.