[Nursing care during night shift: a narrative review of the literature].

Introduction: Although night duties cover more than 1/3 of the nursing care during hospitalizations, little attention is paid to activities performed and problems nurses encounter.

Methods: A literature review on Medline and Cinahl with the following key-words shift workers, nurses, night, nursing, assessment, night duty was performed to explore activities performed by nurses, and patients and nurses perceptions: 23 studies were included.

Results: Nurses perform planned and not planned activities. The most important function is patients vigilance/monitoring during night rounds. Although physically stressing, nurses recognize the value of night duties because they are fully responsible of the patients. Patients' main complaint is the noise that prevents sleep.

Conclusions: Research is needed to study night duties and to set standards for an high quality of care during night shifts.