Individual, situational and lifestyle factors related to shift work tolerance among nurses who are new to and experienced in night work.

Aim: To identify individual, situational and lifestyle variables related to shift work tolerance among nurses who have worked night shifts for less than 1 year and nurses who have worked night shift for more than 6 years, all engaged in rotating shift work.

Background: Working shifts is related to negative health consequences. Factors related to shift work tolerance may differ between nurses with little experience and nurses with extensive experience in night work.

Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire study.

Methods: A questionnaire including established instruments measuring shift work tolerance, personality, work schedule and lifestyle factors was administered between November 2008-May 2010. Randomly selected Norwegian nurses (n = 749) participated in the study; 322 were new and 427 were experienced in night work.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in shift work tolerance between the new to night work nurses and the nurses who were experienced in night work. Young age was related to higher shift work tolerance. Hardiness was positively related to shift work tolerance in both groups. For the new to night work nurses, morningness was positively related to shift work tolerance. For the experienced in night work nurses, languidity, work hours per week and caffeine consumption were negatively, but flexibility was positively, related to shift work tolerance.

Conclusion: Several variables were related to shift work tolerance among rotating shift working nurses, especially hardiness. Somewhat different variables were related to shift work tolerance for nurses who were new to night work than for nurses with more experience in night work.