Managing Work Across Shifts: Not All Shifts Are Equal.

PURPOSE: Despite the prevalence of shiftwork, the mechanisms underlying its effects on nurses' well-being and adaptation to the shifts are not fully understood. This study examines whether the characteristics of the person, particularly chronotype, and aspects of the situation (i.e., shift schedule and the nature of work on each shift for each work context) affect job-specific and general well-being above and beyond potential confounds such as age and negative affectivity (NA).

DESIGN: Primarily surveys of Australian nurses (N = 446) in three contexts (general acute hospital, maternity hospital, aged care).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the role of nurses' dispositional characteristics, especially NA and in certain contexts chronotype, as well as the need to consider the nature of the work conducted on each shift within a context.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Nurse managers need to consider the nature of the work conducted on each shift, whether to look at balancing workloads or setting up processes for handling spikes in workload, especially administration.