Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the influence of shift work on sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and perceived errors in nursing work among hospital nurses.
Methods: The study subjects were 209 hospital nurses working in two general hospitals in South Korea. The data were collected through self-administered questionnaires in May 2013. Sleep quality was measured with Korea Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-K), daytime sleepiness with Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and perceived errors in past 6 months in nursing work with the tool developed in this study.
Results: The sleep quality was significantly worse in rotating shift nurses than fixed day nurses. However, the odds ratio (OR) of 1.92 [95% confidence interval(CI): 0.58-6.37] adjusted for sociodemographic variables, health behaviors, and working environment in logistic regression was not significant. There was no significant difference in the daytime sleepiness between rotating shift nurses and fixed day nurses in both simple and multivariable analyses. There were significantly more perceived errors in rotating shift nurses than fixed day nurses. However, the OR of 1.26 (95% CI: 0.38-4.21) adjusted for sociodemographic variables, health behaviors, working environment, sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness in logistic regression was not significant. Depression (OR=3.31, 95% CI: 1.11-9.84) and daytime sleepiness(OR=1.18, 95% CI: 1.07-1.30) were significantly associated with perceived errors in logistic regression.
Conclusion: This study suggested shift work among hospital nurses had no independent influence of sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and perceived errors. However, daytime sleepiness had independent influence of perceived errors. More studies are warranted to get more reliable conclusion.

Key words: Rotating shift nurses, Nursing work, Clinical nurses, PSQI-K