Determinants of shift-work adjustment for nursing staff: The critical experience of partners

Levels of congruence between shift workers and their partners on experiences of shift work are rarely addressed. Partners, however, might be a potential source for validation of shift-work issues in terms of their understanding of these issues and might have an impact on the shift workers' experience of support or personal disruption. Participants consisted of 59 hospital shift-working nurses (55 women, 4 men) and their 59 partners. Two parallel versions of a previous questionnaire (Smith & Folkard, 1993a, 1993b) were used to obtain subjective data from workers and their partners on perceptions of the workers' experience of sleep flexibility and chronotype and lifestyle factors (sleep/fatigue, health/stress, and social/family) relating to tolerance across three shift types: day, evening, and night. All participants provided information on ideal shift choice and ratings of their own personal disruption and family, communication, and relationship issues. Results indicate that shift workers and their partners are congruent in their perceptions of the impact of shift work on the worker in all three lifestyle factors relating to tolerance across the three shift types. Shift workers experience more health/stress and social/family problems on the evening shift; this is related to their partners' increased sense of personal disruption. Similarly, when partners report the perceived impact of shift work on these same dimensions, it is associated with shift workers' heightened sense of personal disruption. Fewer sleep/fatigue and health/stress problems on the night shift are related to greater sleep flexibility, and evening types experience increased sleep/fatigue problems on the day shift. Social measures (particularly the personal disruption of the partner) rather than biological measures are the greatest predictors of shift workers' personal disruption. Findings are supported by qualitative data. It appears that the partner's understanding and own sense of disruption is critical to the experience of the shift worker regarding coping and predictability of tolerance.