The effect of consistent nursing shifts on teamwork and continuity of care.
To attract nurses to the workforce, scheduling of nurses on patient care units has evolved into a mixture of 4-, 6-, 8-, and 12-hour shifts. The result is chaotic as staff members come and go at varying times, creating the need for multiple handoffs and reassignment of patients. Effective teamwork and continuity of care are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve under these circumstances. The authors describe the effect of using just 1 shift length for all nursing staff.
Kalisch
Beatrice J
BJ
Nursing Business and Health Systems, Titus Distinguished Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. bkalisch@umich.edu
Begeny
Suzanne
S
Anderson
Christine
C
D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D014481:United States