Newey Christine A, Hood Bernadette M
School of Psychology, Victoria University, Victoria, Australia.
J Prof Nurs. 2004 May-Jun;20(3):187-95. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2004.04.007.
Levels of congruence between shift workers and their partners on experiences of shift work are rarely addressed. Partners, however, might be a potential source for validation of shift-work issues in terms of their understanding of these issues and might have an impact on the shift workers' experience of support or personal disruption. Participants consisted of 59 hospital shift-working nurses (55 women, 4 men) and their 59 partners. Two parallel versions of a previous questionnaire (Smith & Folkard, 1993a, 1993b) were used to obtain subjective data from workers and their partners on perceptions of the workers' experience of sleep flexibility and chronotype and lifestyle factors (sleep/fatigue, health/stress, and social/family) relating to tolerance across three shift types: day, evening, and night. All participants provided information on ideal shift choice and ratings of their own personal disruption and family, communication, and relationship issues. Results indicate that shift workers and their partners are congruent in their perceptions of the impact of shift work on the worker in all three lifestyle factors relating to tolerance across the three shift types. Shift workers experience more health/stress and social/family problems on the evening shift; this is related to their partners' increased sense of personal disruption. Similarly, when partners report the perceived impact of shift work on these same dimensions, it is associated with shift workers' heightened sense of personal disruption. Fewer sleep/fatigue and health/stress problems on the night shift are related to greater sleep flexibility, and evening types experience increased sleep/fatigue problems on the day shift. Social measures (particularly the personal disruption of the partner) rather than biological measures are the greatest predictors of shift workers' personal disruption. Findings are supported by qualitative data. It appears that the partner's understanding and own sense of disruption is critical to the experience of the shift worker regarding coping and predictability of tolerance.
轮班工作者与其伴侣在轮班工作经历方面的一致性水平很少被提及。然而，伴侣可能是从他们对这些问题的理解角度来验证轮班工作问题的一个潜在来源，并且可能会对轮班工作者的支持体验或个人困扰产生影响。参与者包括59名医院轮班护士（55名女性，4名男性）及其59名伴侣。使用了之前问卷（史密斯和福卡德，1993a，1993b）的两个平行版本，从工作者及其伴侣那里获取关于工作者对睡眠灵活性、生物钟类型以及与三种轮班类型（日班、中班和夜班）耐受性相关的生活方式因素（睡眠/疲劳、健康/压力和社交/家庭）的主观数据。所有参与者都提供了关于理想轮班选择以及他们自己个人困扰、家庭、沟通和关系问题的评分信息。结果表明，在与三种轮班类型耐受性相关的所有三个生活方式因素方面，轮班工作者及其伴侣对轮班工作对工作者的影响的认知是一致的。轮班工作者在中班时经历更多的健康/压力和社交/家庭问题；这与他们伴侣个人困扰感的增加有关。同样，当伴侣报告轮班工作在这些相同维度上的感知影响时，这与轮班工作者个人困扰感的增强相关。夜班时较少的睡眠/疲劳和健康/压力问题与更大的睡眠灵活性有关，而晚睡型在日班时经历更多的睡眠/疲劳问题。社会因素（特别是伴侣的个人困扰）而非生理因素是轮班工作者个人困扰的最大预测因素。定性数据支持了这些发现。伴侣的理解和自身的困扰感似乎对于轮班工作者在应对和耐受性可预测性方面的体验至关重要。
