The Effect of 12-Hour Shift on Registered Nurses - Essay Example

Research Proposal Research paper topic: ‘The effect of 12-hour shift on registered nurses’ Introduction Registered nurses experience many positive and negative incidents while they are at their workplaces. These incidents affect their quality of life adversely, and have an impact upon nurse retention, state Gurses, Carayon and Wall (2009). Negative activities like workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and racial and gender discrimination, weigh heavily upon job satisfaction. Pellico, Brewer and Kovner (2009, p.194) found in their research that “the working environment where NLRNs begin their career is in need of reform” because Newly Licensed Registered Nurses (NLRNs) experienced stress and pressure, thus, reducing job satisfaction. MacKusick and Minick (2010) investigated why registered nurses leave clinical setting too often. Interviews with those registered nurses were conducted who were no longer serving. The researchers concluded that nurses faced pressure and work load out of their stamina strength. Sexual harassment has also been a problem for registered nurses (Cogin & Fish, 2009). Besides, sleep, sleepiness and fatigue have also been found in nurses on 12-hour shifts (Geiger-Brown et al., 2012). Nasrabadi et al. (2009) studied the effect of night shifts on Iranian nurses in hospitals setting. They found that night shifts caused physical and emotional distress in nurses, but there opportunities for clinical learning increased. Yoder (2010) studied compassion fatigue in nurses who worked on 8- and 12-hour shifts, and found that “Compassion fatigue scores were significantly different between nurses who worked 8- or 12-hour shifts” (p.191). This research is an extension of previous literature, focusing upon the specific stressors that the nurses experiences while they are on 12-hour shifts. Problem Statement The problem statement of this research is that the stress which registered nurses experience at workplace during 12-hour shifts affects the quality of their professional lives. Purpose of Study The purpose of the study is to investigate negative activities going on at workplace that tend to decrease the morale or registered nurses, thus reducing nurse retention. Critical aspects of the workplace under study will be assessed to determine the damaging activities. Focus will be on stress experienced by female registered nurses. Research Question The research will answer this question: Does stress experienced by female registered nurses during 12-hour shifts affect nurse retention and job satisfaction? If yes, then what authorities are doing to eliminate this problem; and if no, then what are the reasons that make the nurses dissatisfied with the job which often results in execution of the job. What are the effects or stressors during 12-hour shifts? Significance of the Study This study will help explain the trends of 12-hours shifts in hospitals and healthcare settings, and whether or not 12-hour shifts affect the quality of life of female registered nurses. The survey will help the nurses share their experiences with each other. It will also help determine the role of workplace authorities regarding stress during 12-hour shifts. Context and Participants The participants of the research will be female registered nurses licensed from 2001 to 2003 in (name of your city), working in an acute healthcare setting. This time period is chosen because three years are needed for a nurse to become competent, as is stated in the Patricia Benner’s 2001 model of novice to expert. The chosen nurses will have graduated from a diploma, associate degree, baccalaureate, or direct entry master’s program. Subjects will not include nurse supervisors, but will include only registered nurses working on 12-hour shifts. This will maintain focus only on the nurses who could be given extra workload by their supervisors resulting in stress. The sample size will be 200 participants. Methodology Design of the Study The study will include a survey designed using the Tailored Design Method to increase the response rate, and will be distributed in a hospital setting. This method is consistent with the qualitative research because it will consist of open-ended and close-ended questions to which the participants would reply in whatever way they liked. This will make it easy to understand what they experience or see others experiencing at their workplaces. To back up my research, I also plan to conduct a structured interview with a nurse supervisor, to take his comments about the effect of 12-hour shift on registered nurses and the triggers of any bad effects. I will collect data and statistics, and will organize them in charts and tables. The whole research will take around two month Data Collection Data will be collected through questionnaires prepared using Tailored Design Method. Tailored Design Method consists of precise groundwork and distribution of questionnaires so that response rate is increased. I predict that, due to the efficiency of this method, many participants will find themselves willing to share their personal experiences and stories in the form of narratives at the end of their questionnaires. Filled questionnaires will be kept track of so that none of them gets missed accidentally, especially if I plan to collect these through postage. The participants will be encouraged to openly express their views and opinions so that a better idea may be obtained to back up the problem statement. As far as the personal interview with the nurse supervisor is concerned, structured interview will be prepared consisting of questions relating to effects of 12-hour shift. Appointment will be taken. The interviewee will talk about the nature of 12-hour shifts, its effects, and the complaints of nurses about their experiences. Data Analysis After the data will be collected, the analysis part of the research will be conducted. The responses to the questionnaire items will be analyzed. Narratives which the respondents will write in response to open-ended questions will be recorded down verbatim, and then will be analyzed using content analysis. “Content analysis takes texts and analyses, reduces and interrogates them into summary form through the use of both pre-existing categories and emergent themes in order to generate or test a theory”, according to Cohen at al. (2007, p.476). Content analysis analyzes big chunks of texts, and reduces them to fewer understandable chunks based upon specific coding techniques. Moreover, NVivo7 is the software that is be used to analyze the qualitative responses, and it may be used in this research to analyze the narratives and responses after they will be read and reread multiple times. Data reduction will be accomplished by writing in the margins, making footnotes, and counting the frequency of analogous annotations and comments. An expert may be consulted to independently evaluate the responses and the narratives, to get an exact idea that the responses fit the criteria of stress, extra workload, or any other kind of negativities. A thematic content analysis will be, then, conducted; comparisons will be made; patterns will be noted; and, details will be discussed. After this, the data will be coded based upon the themes and patterns that will be found after the analysis of the responses. Data saturation will be kept track of. The analysis portion of the research will approximately take two weeks. Theoretical Framework The hypothesis of this research is that negative commotions which registered nurses experience at workplace during 12-hour shifts lead to significant decline in the quality of their professional lives. Keeping under consideration the hypothesis of the research, the independent variable is “experience faced during 12-hour shifts”, and the dependent variable is “quality of professional life of a registered nurse”. Summary The research will investigate the effect of 12-hour shift on the life quality of registered nurses, and any negative experiences they face during those shifts. Participants from an acute healthcare setting will be selected. Questionnaires and a structured interview will be conducted. Data will be collected and analyzed to obtain accurate results. References Cohen, L., Manion, L., Morrison, K., & Morrison, K.R.B. (2007). Research Methods in Education. New York, NY: Routledge. Cogin, J., & Fish, A. (2009). Sexual harassment – a touchy subject for nurses. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 23(4), pp.442 – 462. Geiger-Brown, J., Rogers, V.E., Trinkoff, A.M., Kane, R.L., & Scharf, S.M. (2012). Sleep, sleepiness, fatigue, and performance of 12-hour-shift nurses. Chronobiology International, 29(2), pp. 211-219. Gurses, A.P., Carayon, P.C., & Wall, M. (2009). Impact of performance obstacles on intensive care nurses workload, perceived quality and safety of care, and quality of working life. Health Services Research, 44(2p1), pp. 422–443. MacKusick, C.I., & Minick, P. (2010). Why are nurses leaving? Findings from an initial qualitative study on nursing attrition. MEDSURG Nursing, 19(6), pp. 335-340. Nasrabadi, A.N., Seif, H., Latifi, M., Rasoolzadeh, N., & Emami, A. (2009). Night shift work experiences among Iranian nurses: a qualitative study. International Nursing Review, 56(4), pp. 498–503. Pellico, L.H., Brewer, C.S., & Kovner, C.T. (2009). What newly licensed registered nurses have to say about their first experiences. Nursing Outlook, 57(4), pp. 194-203. Yoder, E.A. (2010). Compassion fatigue in nurses. Applied Nursing Research, 23(4), pp. 191–197. Read More