[Influence on sleep and burden on visiting nurses engaged in on-call service during the night].

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to elucidate the influence on sleep and burden on visiting nurses engaged in on-call service during the night.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 614 visiting nurses, with the contents being as follows: outline of each subject, on-call night service schedule, mental and physical burden of such on-call service, and the state of sleep. The state of sleep on days when the subject was in charge of the on-call service and on days when the subject was not in charge was compared. In addition, to analyze the burden factors of on-call service and their influence on the state of sleep, a logistic regression analysis was performed, setting the target variables as "mental burden," "physical burden," and "imperfect sleep".

RESULTS

In total, 187 respondents were targeted for analysis (response rate: 30.5%). A total of 81.3% of the subjects felt mental burden when in charge of the on-call service and 69.4% felt physical burden. The sleep time was shorter and the occurrence of interrupted sleep was more frequent on days when the subject was in charge of the on-call service compared with the days when the subject was not in charge. Furthermore, the following worsened: depth of sleep, comfort of sleep, refreshed feeling, satisfaction of sleep, and difficulty in falling asleep. The logistic regression analysis revealed that mental and physical burden on nurses who received more than three calls in a month were significantly higher in comparison with those who did not [adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval: 2.51 (1.05-6.00) and 2.44 (1.20-5.00), respectively].

CONCLUSIONS

We found that more nurses who received more than three calls in a month felt mental and physical burden. The state of sleep was worse on the days when the subjects were in charge of the on-call service than on the days when they were not in charge. It is necessary to properly establish clear policies for extra pay, sufficient breaks, and days off.