Study looks to improve hospital night shift work

2 hours ago

Federica BedendoNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Three NHS trusts across the North East and Cumbria are working with researchers studying night shift work

PA Media A stock image of NHS workers in a hospital corridor. They are wearing blue scrubs. One is pulling a wheelchair while two are looking at paperwork on a reception desk. — Three NHS trusts across the North East and Cumbria are working with researchers studying night shift work

Hospital staff across a region are due to take part in a study to help create safer working conditions on night shifts.

Newcastle University said its researchers would look at how long-standing work cultures had "normalised unsafe and unsustainable working conditions" for medical staff, healthcare assistants and porters.

They will work with hospital night workers at Northumbria Healthcare, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals and the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear trust.

The £1.3m project is expected to start in January and last for about five years.

Environmental history lecturer Dr Kristin Hussey said she would examine the social history of the night shift going back 175 years as part of the study.

"We'll be developing practical approaches aimed at improving the well-being of night shift workers in British hospitals," she said.

AR Photography Dr Kristin Hussey, lecturer in environmental history in the school of history, classics and archaeology at Newcastle University. She has dark hair in a short bob and wears glasses with a thin red frame. She is wearing a white t-shirt with a cream woolly gilet over the top. She is smiling at the camera. — Dr Kristin Hussey will lead a study on the social history of the night shift

It will work with two large nursing education providers, Northumberland University and Edinburgh Napier University, as well as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Hussey said: "I'm excited to be able to demonstrate that humanities research can make a real-world, practical contribution to health and well-being."

The project will bring together local policymakers and healthcare professionals in policy workshops, as well as working with the Sleep Charity to develop new policies and a practice toolkit.

The RCN's chairperson on the history of nursing forum, Professor Vari M Drennan, said the study would uncover "important information about this integral part of nurses' lives and nursing".

She said: "Greater understanding of the history and context of night shift work will enable us to better support nursing staff across the UK through the RCN's current work on policy and professional guidance."

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