An-Najah Staff

Aim: This study considered as an exploratory for the effect of night shift on physical, psychological, social health and well being of nurses at surgical wards in Palestinian governmental hospital.

Background: Because night work affects at all aspects of nurses' health, so the literatures give this subject some of attention to improve quality of nurses’ life and their care given to patient.

Method:  qualitative expletory study used a convenience sample of nurses working at six governmental hospitals ( Rafydia governmental hospital on Nablus, Al_Husain governmental hospital on Bethlehem, Alea governmental hospital on Hebron, Thabet-Thabet governmental hospital on Tulkarm, Qalqilya governmental hospital on Qalqilya, Jenin governmental hospital on Jenin) (N=80) were studied using a structured questionnaire developed by Sizeni Madide (2003) that describe the effect of night shift among nurses.

Results: The results of our study reveal that night shift causes physical, psychological, social health problems on nurses who take night at surgical ward. In addition, the results indicated that the performance nurses affected by the night shift. Nurses experienced more complaints about night shift as compared to day shift. Few nurses prefer to work on the night shift.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates that nurses of all ages and both genders exposed to the risks of night work and its negative impact on physical, psychological, social health. Just few nurses did not experience problems from the night shift.