You are the manager of an intensive care unit. Many of the nurses have approached you requesting 12-hour shifts. Other nurses have approached you stating that they will transfer out of the unit if 12-hour shifts are implemented. You are exploring the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using both 8- and 12-hour shifts so that staff could select which type of scheduling they wanted.
DQ:Would this create a scheduling nightmare? Will you limit the number of 12-hour shifts that staff could work in a week? Would you pay overtime for the last 4 hours of the 12-hour shift? Would you allow staff to choose freely between 8- and 12-hour shifts? What other problems may result from mixing 8- and 12-hour shifts?
Mixing 8 and 12-hour shifts may result in several complications. A prominent one is a physical fatigue associated with sleep pattern disruption, especially for staff who have existing sleep problems. This would consequently affect employee productivity at work, making them less keen and responsive to patients’ needs. Nurses working longer shifts refer to their patient care as ‘fair,’ attributed to high levels of fatigue and burnout (Lin, Liao, Chen, & Fan, 2014). In conclusion, to avoid conflict between management and staff, I would implement the 12-hour
