Relationships among meal time, break time and workplace characteristics of nurses who work day, evening and night shifts: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Objectives. This study aimed to examine the relationships among shift-working nurses’ meal time, break time and workplace characteristics. Methods. The cross-sectional study analyzed 351 questionnaires from 117 nurses who worked three shifts, drawn from eight nursing units in two tertiary hospitals located in South Korea. Meal time and break time during work were investigated through a questionnaire that participants completed immediately after the end of each shift. Regression analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between nurses’ work characteristics and meal time and break time. Results. Meal time and break time were less than 30 min on all shifts and significantly longer on the night shift than on the other shifts. As patients’ average length of stay increased, meal time increased on day and night shifts, while break time decreased on evening shifts. Overall, a higher nursing staff-to-patient ratio was associated with shorter meal and break times. Conclusions. It was found that nurses were not able to take proper time for meals and breaks while working. A realistic and specific strategy should be prepared to address this issue, with appropriate consideration of the specific characteristics of nurse staffing, patients’ conditions and shifts.

KEYWORDS:

• Meal time
• break time
• nurses
• three shifts
• length of stay
• nurse-to-patient ratio

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the nurses who participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available. The data used in this article were extracted from some of the content of the author’s doctoral dissertation conducted at Seoul National University and used for secondary analysis.