title: Assessing the relationships between nurse work hours/overtime and nurse and patient outcomes: systematic literature review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The effects of work hours/overtime on nurse and patient outcomes and specific components of work hours (per shift and per week) and overtime on these effects have not been systematically examined.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this review was to systematically evaluate the effect of nurse overtime and long work hours on nurse and patient outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online search of six electronic bibliographic databases was conducted for research published from 2000 to 2013.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Twenty-one nurse outcome measures and 19 patient outcome measures were found in relationships with work hours and overtime. A total of 67 relationships to nurse outcomes and 41 relationships to patient outcomes were examined.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this review suggested that evidence supporting positive relationships between working long hours and adverse outcomes to the nurses is strong. However, to make a conclusion of the positive relationship between long work hours and adverse patient outcomes, more evidence is needed.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Electronic address: sbae@nursing.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Sung-Heui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY.
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fabry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005221:Fatigue / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adverse nurse outcomes; Adverse patient outcomes; Nurse overtime; Nurse work hours