Braids

American Studies Michael Carlebach (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Holy Joe, Miami Beach, 1976. In my long love affair with photography, or more precisely with photojournalism, I never developed much affection for the dramatic events that newspapers and magazines feed on for an instant, or the incendiary personalities who elbow their way into our consciousness. I have, to be sure, made plenty of pictures of news events, and of the glittery people in their midst, but I am happiest when I can sneak away and find what has been or will be forgotten or neglected or overlooked. That means at football games I pretty much ignore the celebrity quarterbacks and wide receivers, preferring instead to look at the folks on the sidelines, the cheerleaders, and the curious people who inhabit mascot outfits. In Florida, where I lived for many years, and elsewhere in America, dramatic vistas are commonplace, and the clangor of the unknown for their promised fifteen minutes of fame, and the already famous for an extra fifteen minutes, assures a steady supply of eager and sometimes even photogenic subjects. Many years ago I concluded that for me truth and beauty, and perhaps wit and wisdom as well, is more likely to reside in what is ordinary and seemingly insignificant than in the supercharged personae whose incessant bluster and self-promotion guarantees attention but delivers little except noise and more noise. So I usually look outside the media glare, outside the alluring limelight, for images. This is, perhaps, a sideways look at America and American culture, but it is one that can produce moments that are quietly decisive and memorable, moments that describe us all—but without makeup and bereft of a spokesperson. [End Page 24] Click for larger view View full resolution Everglades target practice, 1981. [End Page 25] Click for larger view View full resolution Key West, 1971. [End Page 26] Click for larger view View full resolution Dade County youth fair, 1971. [End Page 27] Click for larger view View full resolution Demolition Derby drivers, Hialeah, 1982. [End Page 28] Click for larger view View full resolution Dinner Key Flea Market, 1978. [End Page 29] Click for larger view View full resolution South Beach pier, 1977. [End Page 30] Click for larger view View full resolution University of Miami mascot, Orange Bowl, 1975. [End Page 31] Click for larger view View full resolution Burnsville, North Carolina. [End Page 32] Click for larger view View full resolution Miami Beach, 1995. [End Page 33] Click for larger view View full resolution South Beach, 1988. [End Page 34] Click for larger view View full resolution Savannah, Georgia. [End Page 35] Click for larger view View full resolution North Key Largo, 1980. Michael Carlebach Michael Carlebach lived and photographed in south Florida for over three and a half decades. As a professor at the University of Miami, he taught classes in photojournalism, American studies, and art history. His publications include The Origins of Photojournalism in America (1992), American Photojournalism Comes of Age (1998), and Working Stiffs: Occupational Portraits in the Age of Tintypes (2002), all published by the Smithsonian Institution Press. He now lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Footnotes Editor’s Note: A selection of these images was previously published in Michael Carlebach’s Sunny Land: Pictures from Paradise (Safe Harbor Books, 2010). [End Page 36] Copyright © 2011 Center for the Study of the American South

Rural healthcare faces many unique challenges such as workforce shortages, transportation, and health literacy. One challenge specific to Baraga County Memorial Hospital (BCMH) is staffing a night shift medical technologist. Currently, there is not a night shift medical technologist employed at BCMH. The hospital is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and requires the services of a medical technologist in order to provide medical services during these hours. The lack of nighttime coverage causes day and evening shift employees to be on-call several times per month. It also increases turnaround time for patient results in the emergency room. This impedes patient care, as medical providers are waiting longer for laboratory results. Implementation of a night shift employee would decrease the number of on-call shifts for day and evening shift employees, as well as increase the number of available working hours. This increase could ease the burden of required daily tasks by redistributing them to include night shift hours and allow for further growth in the services offered by the laboratory. The goal of this report is to determine the cost-benefit analysis for the creation of a night shift medical technologist position, as well as develop a clear job description for implementation at BCMH. The aim of this project is to increase employee satisfaction, laboratory test catalog, laboratory profit, decrease laboratory turnaround times, and reduce employee turnover in the laboratory.

This study aimed to examine the association between rotating night shift work and carotid atherosclerosis in Chinese steelworkers. A total of 3582 subjects were included in this study. Different exposure metrics of night shifts, including current shift status, duration of night shifts (years), the cumulative number of night shifts (nights), cumulative length of night shifts (hours) and average frequency of night shifts (nights/month), were used to examine the relationship between night shift work and carotid atherosclerosis, including carotid plaque and carotid plaque scores. The prevalence of carotid plaque was 29.9% in the study population. Compared with day workers, significantly increased odds of carotid plaque were observed among shift workers in each quartile of the duration of night shifts after adjusting for potential confounders, especially in the third and fourth quartiles: odds ratio (OR) = 1.91, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46 to 2.49, in the third quartiles; OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.30 to 2.20, in the fourth quartiles. Positive associations of different exposure metrics of night shifts (continuous) with the odds of carotid plaque and the carotid plaque score were observed in the restricted cubic spline (RCS) models. No significant association was found in female workers between night shift work and carotid plaque. Rotating night shift work is associated with elevated odds of carotid atherosclerosis in male steelworkers.

Background: Broad range of nursing activities and its interdisciplinary nature have caused work stress and mood changes such as depression and other mental illnesses among nurses. Patients' health and safety are directly related to work setting and the treatment of health care team. Objectives: The present study aimed at examining depression-related factors as well as quality of life among nurses working in Ilam hospitals. Patients and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study, which was conducted on all the nurses working in hospitals of Ilam during 2013. Collection of the study data was accomplished by using Beck depression inventory (BDI) and SF-12 questionnaires. Then, we used path analysis, a technique applied to test casual models. To conduct the path analysis of depression and quality of life, at first a preliminary casual mode was developed and then the final model of depression and quality of life was identified using multiple regression analysis. Results: According to the final model yielded from path analysis, the most important factors contributing to depression are mental component of quality of life, marital status, night shifts, age, physical component of quality of life, and overtime which their direct effects on nurses' depression are stronger than their indirect effects (through mental and physical components). Conclusions: Based on the study results, making plans to promote mental aspect of nurses, focusing on family foundations like marriage, reducing and distributing working hours, and decreasing night shifts hours of nurses could reduce their depression and improve their quality of life.

Non-refreshing or insufficient sleep, and impaired alertness on the job, are two nearly universal consequences of night work. The effects of drugs upon the sleep and alertness of night workers has only recently been studied and much work remains to be done. To date, it is clear that sleep during the day can be improved with sedative-hypnotic compounds, particularly the benzodiazepines. Despite improvement in sleep, alertness at night is improved only mildly, if at all, with short-acting sleeping agents and can be further impaired with long-acting drugs. The limited research examining alertness and performance during night shift hours after administration of CNS stimulants suggests significant benefits. The judicious use of CNS stimulants in this way needs further exploration. Precise pharmacological manipulation of the endogenous sleep/wake rhythm is primarily theoretical at this time but should be pursued. Key Words: SleepAlertnessDrugsBenzodiazepinesStimulantsShiftwork

To analyze the variables associated with fatigue perception and workability on workers working 12-hour fixed night and day shifts. A cross-sectional study was carried out. Forty-three workers, working 12-hour fixednight and day shifts in a textile factory, filled out questionnaires about fatigue, workability index, individual characteristics, life style and working conditions. A univariate linear regression analysis was performed. Fatigue-related factors are associated to the workers' life style (physical activities is a protection factor), and sleep difficulties, with may increase fatigue perception. Workability-related factors are associated to longevity on job and working night shifts - workability index decreases as job longevity increases. Working night shifts showed a higher workability index. The 12-hour shifts may cause a considerably higher workload, influencing worker's perception of fatigue and workability index and sleep disturbances. The results indicate that night shifts may not always be translated a health problem. However, this was a cross-sectional study with a small population sample and selection bias is not excluded. Since the workability index reduces while job longevity increases, there is a need for further longitudinal studies with larger population samples.

Effect of Adding a Pediatric Vascular Access Team Component to a Pediatric Peripheral Vascular Access Algorithm

High School Yearbooks: Using and Preserving The Record Catherine D’Ignazio (bio) High school yearbooks are a treasure trove for education historians. They offer glimpses into the educational past found nowhere else. Along with the changes in people a nd programs that occurred from year to year, they document the ways in which high schools shaped student identities and the meanings students took from their high school experiences. Some historians have used high school yearbooks, student newspapers, and student magazines to explore a wide variety of topics in the history of education—most commonly student culture, school life, curricula, and the extracurricular activities.1 Such official documents as administrative reports and school board minutes may be indispensable if the objective is to understand how educational policies and school programs changed over time. If the objective is to understand how students experienced high school and what it meant for their prospects after graduation, however, then student publications, especially yearbooks, should be among the sources consulted.2 [End Page 376] In the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, many high schools maintain a collection of their own yearbooks, but methods vary from school to school. One might store such a collection in the library, another in a dean’s office. Some have a designated closet, and some, unfortunately, keep their yearbooks in an otherwise junk-filled room. Sometimes historical societies accession high school yearbooks. The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, for example, collects and preserves yearbooks from across the state.3 The Newberry Library in Chicago has a large collection, primarily from Illinois, that can be found through its online catalogue. Both the Newberry and the nearby Harold Washington Library Center have many yearbooks from several Chicago high schools, most from the half-century between 1920 and 1970.4 The Chicago Board of Education maintains an archive that accepts donated yearbooks. While the archive survived the district’s recent move, it no longer has a professional archivist. The School District of Philadelphia should consider adding high school yearbooks to the documents covered by its existing records management policy. Whether or not it houses them is a separate issue. Since the Civil War, young adults attending educational institutions have documented their school experiences. By doing so, they engage in the construction of memory. At first, students compiled scrapbooks and autograph books.5 Later, they devoted the final issue of the school’s literary magazine to the graduating class, making space among the student essays, poems, and plays for remembering the seniors. This issue often included a class history written by a graduating student as well as essays and predictions, both serious and humorous, about what might lie ahead for the graduates. With the increased availability of letterpresses and half-tone printing after 1900, literary magazines evolved into yearbooks and became the primary place for memorializing many aspects of high school life, especially the achievements of those about to graduate.6 Soon after they first appeared, yearbooks and magazines were shared among schools so that they could be compared. In 1914, students in Woodbury, New Jersey, reviewed yearbooks from fourteen other high [End Page 377] schools and commented on six (fig. 1). These exchanges demonstrate a national interest among teenagers in their peers and a nascent youth culture. The editors of these student publications believed, as Reed Ueda has pointed out, that “they were not only expressing their identity, but also discovering the common bonds joining turn-of-the-century high school students in every part of the country.”7 Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Yearbook exchange review, Woodbury High School White and Gold, 1914, Woodbury Junior and Senior High School library, Woodbury, NJ. Of special value are student commentaries. In Camden, New Jersey, students in 1908 asked, “Shall We Study Latin and Greek—What, then, is the value of Latin and Greek to the boys and girls of the Camden High School?”8 Decades later, changes in athletic programming prompted female students at Frankford High School in Philadelphia to correct a common misperception: “Some people have the false impression that girls do not take much part in the sports world; however according to the showing [End Page 378...

Concept A:, and: Instruction B: How to be an artist/wife, and: Tulips for kissing: modern love Cindy Carlson (bio) Concept A: Conceptualism: philosophical aphorism: a certain amount is plenty of lemons/thread the needle unseen and familiar. Second place is/compelling her through time disentangled tangledism, geometrical grids. Often merged, emerged more or less a judged book. This attracts me: constant and learned intolerable loss of meaning. When you say girlfriend, you’ve said it all. [End Page 89] Instruction B: How to be an artist/wife Forms she absorbed and assimilated—simulated and practiced the trip. Her own happy husband/happy/home. Freeing latent visual memories, she left for CA as teenager. Stripped texts brazenly intuitive/she worked abstractly on babies, decorations. Intellectually felt, at least or lastly imagined palpable presence, in a way. Thrust again into light, spot or soft white, she forgot the instructions. Happyhusband/happywife/happylife/happyhome/trigger happyhome/less/happy hus/bone—she couldn’t remember, couldn’t help repeating lines snorting onions, singing the last YA she read or was it the one she’d write—she didn’t know. She wasn’t sorry. [End Page 90] Tulips for kissing: modern love Spring coils eternal from the curbed mattress. In close proximity of the far removed, the real self emerges the stylized. Here the layers of meaning lie. Trustworthy and together and at least until the end of April: She wants a dress for the wedding, she doesn’t need to want a dress. She wants a party for the dress, she doesn’t want. She wants to admit she wanted a dress, she couldn’t because dresses don’t arrive overnight unless you pay dearly. She wants for all wanting, spring and the forever but realizes that shipment has sailed. [End Page 91] Cindy Carlson Cindy Carlson wrote her first poem on a birch tree. She now lives, teaches, sings, and writes in Madison, WI. Her work has appeared in Sentence, Shampoo, Bloom, The Madison Review, Transom, among other fine literary journals. She received her BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Copyright © 2017 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

J. P. Morgan Defines Human Potential Energy, and: Nikola Tesla Discovers Desire, and: Nikola Tesla at the Wardenclyffe Ruins Perry Janes (bio) J. P. Morgan Defines Human Potential Energy Washington dc, 1913. Tycoon Morgan testifies before the Pujo Committee convened by Congress to investigate Wall Street’s violation of antitrust laws. You find it sitting in the tongue’s back row, the cherry pit of a kiss, or cry. Why not reach to taste its promise? I remember being young, being choked by my father’s voice welded to my throat. Now I wheeze with a secret. I realize the world piece by piece, merge and rise with every union. How did it come unyoked? I can testify to this—they’ll celebrate you for a moment and turn on you the next. Humans are no different than flame: visible when inertia shifts, rushing through even the quietest streets, rising from the wreck, howling at the mention of your name. [End Page 159] Nikola Tesla Discovers Desire Colorado Springs, 1899. Tesla builds his magnifying transmitter outside Pike’s Peak, an area famous for its frequent lightning strikes, and causes a national stir over the city’s strange electrical phenomena present during its operation. after Tyehimba Jess Equal to fire, lightning arcs from lampposts. Even snow bursts with static. Drawn by my transmitter couples in dark rooms come unbound again and again. Polarized apart, they crush together. Their touch circles, unable to land. But you can always find more want. Who knew butterflies rode currents? Drawn to my coil’s flash? Erupting, the clouds grow heavy with ash. They fall like rain past my window— wings split from the body. Lit with my own life I’ve sent out so much charge my body has magnetized in two. Katharine, I am jealous of the currents that find you miles away to charge through your blood. I am angry with my hands, the way I spend weeks waiting for shock. An inventor’s life is one of questions: What frequency does desire travel? Every day the universe expands molecules are pulled farther apart. I am left halves I cannot reconcile: You and my work. Myself and myself [End Page 160] Nikola Tesla at the Wardenclyffe Ruins Shoreham, New York, 1917. J. P. Morgan withdraws his funding for the tower’s construction, ruining Tesla’s dreams for transatlantic radio transmission and free wireless energy. The air ripples with a shallow wish: that our voices will come back to us like dogs let off a leash—they’re lost,they’re lost, they’re lost—or that possibly I’m more of a man without it. That somewhere I’m growing out of the telephone speaker’s small pores into a new force. But where, then, will these bodiless hollows lead us? Look how they’ve razed these walls, the innocent equipment left sitting in the cellar like creatures from the future struck to steel—I have tried to shake off the world’s oldest forms and failed. What will go next? Where will we escape once we don’t own our own energy? [End Page 161] Perry Janes Perry Janes is the recipient of eight Hopwood Awards, a Kasdan Fellowship in Screenwriting, and an Arthur Miller Arts Award from the University of Michigan. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Salt Hill, The Collagist, and Glimmer Train. In 2012, his short film Zug premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Copyright © 2013 University of Nebraska Press

From the Editorial Board Amy Charpentier As I began my dissertation research, I returned to teaching as a high school social studies teacher in the Arkansas Delta. Apart from the reality of teaching in the Delta – high unemployment and poverty – my teaching situation is nearly perfect. I have small classes, supplies, administrative support, and motivated students. I control my curriculum. I have taken students on a college visit day, led a field trip to a research library, and read Howard Zinn with them. Yet the transition from student and researcher back to teacher has not been easy. I certainly have new knowledge that I have gained through graduate school and from reading journals like this one. But there is still a disconnection between what I have learned and how I put it into action in my own classroom. I wonder now if the reason that teachers do not read research, as they are so often implored to do, is because it is hard to translate it to classrooms. In this issue, Jennifer Job points out in her historical survey of the High School Journal that this journal has in the past been geared for high school teachers, professors, and administrators. I would like to think our intent has always been about the communication between practitioners and researchers even if it has not been as explicitly stated as it was then. The current editorial board is working towards increasing the depth and breadth of the articles we get, while also trying to increase the communication between practitioners and researchers. I think that we have found a nice balance in this issue. As we move forward, we hope to continue to think about high schools particularly through new sections that highlight student art and essays about teaching and learning. We have also begun to turn to social media to help us accomplish increased communication between practitioners and researchers. We hope that you will take time to join our conversation in ‘real time’ via Facebook and Twitter (hsjournal). We are also excited to rollout Scholar One to streamline the process of receiving, reviewing, and accepting articles. Though I am several hundred miles away from the University of North Carolina at [End Page 1] Chapel Hill where I attended graduate school and where this journal is published, technology such as this (and Skype!) helps me to remain connected and to keep abreast of new ideas in high school teaching. Returning to teaching gives me a new perspective on what we do at the High School Journal; I hope that as we move forward we can meet the needs of both practitioners and researchers so that there is a greater dialogue between the two. [End Page 2] Amy Charpentier University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill acharpen@gmail.com Copyright © 2009 University of North Carolina Press

The advent of handheld digital devices has proved to be revolutionary for the teaching of art history. They make it possible to supplement, even replace, the traditional format of lecturing and communal viewing of a single screen. On their personal screens, students can enter a searchable world of thousands of virtual images: what the radical art theorist and novelist André Malraux, more than half a century ago, called the imaginary museum. For several years, I have been experimenting with my art history classes, showing my students how to use their laptops, tablets and phones to become active viewers and collaborators. Multiple virtual images transform the content, as well as the environment, of learning art history. Rather than being restricted to the illustrations in a textbook, students can use their devices to engage with online image sources such as museum websites, image databanks, and auction houses. Portable digital technology can turn the art history classroom into a collaborative and dynamic experience inconceivable a short time ago. Malraux himself, who believed in the power of art to transcend time and space, might be amazed at what is now not only possible, but commonplace.

Reviewed by: Из города на дачу: социокультурные факторы освоения дачного пространства вокруг Петербурга (1860–1914) by О. Ю. Малинова-Тзиафета Anna Ananieva (bio) and Julian Windmöller (bio) О. Ю. Малинова-Тзиафета. Из города на дачу: социокультурные факторы освоения дачного пространства вокруг Петербурга (1860–1914). Санкт-Петербург: Издательство Европейского университета в Санкт-Петербурге, 2013. 336с., ил. ISBN: 978-5-94380-137-2. At least by the middle of the nineteenth century, the Russian word “dacha” had found its proper place in European vocabulary as a term for “Russian country house” in general and “summer dwellings of Petersburgers” in particular. 1 The sociocultural phenomenon thus conceived remained deeply rooted in the people’s everyday life even after the dissolution of the Russian and later the Soviet Empire. Its integration in the here and now of common living environments may be one reason why the dacha stayed outside the focus of scientific investigation for a long time. Only in the 1990s did it become an object of observation and reflection. Nearly at the same time, the Russian press and the international [End Page 426] housing and urban studies “discovered” the dacha as a socio-cultural practice combining recreational and economic functions. 2 Receiving academic attention during the time of the 1990s’ economic crisis highlighted its significance for “sustaining life.” 3 Dacha life became an object of international investigation for anthropologists, historians, art historians, and literary scholars. In 2003, the British historian Steven Lovell published the first comprehensive study on the cultural history of the dacha since the eighteenth century. 4 One of the recent publications based on field research and investigating today’s dacha culture was written by the American anthropologist Melissa L. Caldwell. 5 The Russian historian Olga Malinova-Tziafeta devotes her new study to the dacha’s ascent to a mass phenomenon of Saint Petersburg’s urban culture. Her book Iz goroda na dachu explores the sociocultural factors of dacha development around the capital of the Russian Empire between 1860 and 1914. It is one of the first works to start closing the gap that until now existed in the historiography on dacha culture and Saint Petersburg’s urban development in the time period after the Great Reforms. Malinova-Tziafeta draws from a variety of sources, ranging from newspapers to guidebooks and including visual sources like postcards and photographs, found in four different archives (P. 25). The secondary literature includes recent publications in Russian, English, and German as well as old works related to her topic. The book consists of four chapters, with an emphasis on the second and the fourth. The first chapter, “Ot dachi k dachke,” contains a history of the term “dacha,” following it from the seventeenth century to the [End Page 427] late nineteenth. The author’s concern to reconstruct the term’s historical semantics and its fixing in juridical and fiscal texts is an important one. A conceptual history of the dacha remains a desideratum. Various significant yet still fragmentary studies defining the phenomenon for respective time periods have been published by historians, art and literary historians, and linguists. 6 Combined, these findings and Malinova-Tziafeta’s observations lay a good base for a further clarification of the term. Such an undertaking would contribute to developing a joint perspective on the dacha as a phenomenon of Russian culture and could relativize the stereotypical juxtaposition of Moscow and Petersburg as two contrasting types of living environments in the countryside. The following three chapters of the book each deal with sociocultural factors influencing the valorization of dacha space and transforming the dacha from an elite into a mass phenomenon. The focus lies on hygiene and health issues resulting from the ongoing industrialization (chapters 2 and 3). The fourth chapter is concerned with the sociocultural influence of railroad construction on dacha space and vice versa. In the second chapter, “Bor’ba za blagoustroistvo Peterburga i dachnyi otdykh (1860−1914),” Malinova-Tziafeta expounds the struggle for improved hygiene and health conditions in the capital and its consequences for the development of dacha space around the city. The chapter centers on refuse disposal and the planned construction of urban sewerage, as well as the sociocultural factors connected to them. The author vividly elaborates how civic life was affected by industrialization and how the municipal authorities on the one hand, and the developing middle class on the other, tried to deal with it. Compared to other European metropolises, Saint Petersburg...

The nursing workforce in the Philippines is known for its dedication and resilience but faces significant challenges, including the demands of shift work. Longer 12-hour shifts are common in local hospitals, offering continuity of care but raising concerns about fatigue, dissatisfaction, and burnout. This study examined the impact of shift durations on nurses’ perceived stress and the quality of working hours during 8-hour versus 12-hour shifts. It involved a diverse group of nurses, varying in age, gender, educational background, and experience, working in private hospitals in the Province of Cavite. A convergence mixed-method design combined quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a comprehensive analysis. Quantitative data analysis identified patterns, correlations, and differences in stress and working hours based on shift length, while qualitative thematic analysis explored nurses’ experiences. Established scales like the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) ensured construct validity, while criterion validity compared the study’s instruments with established measures of stress and job satisfaction. Reliability was tested through Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest methods. Results showed that most respondents were aged 22-26 (28.75%) and 32-36 (25%), with males (81.25%) outnumbering females (18.75%). Nearly half (47.5%) had over five years of experience, and more than 80% were satisfied with their work schedules. However, nurses working 12-hour shifts faced higher risks of burnout, dissatisfaction, and intent to leave. Dissatisfaction was 40% higher for 12-hour shifts compared to 8-hour shifts. Nurses also reported fatigue, mood changes, and health issues after long shifts, which reduced social opportunities and affected mental well-being. Staff nurses (65%) dominated the population, with ICU (11.25%) and wards (10%) as the most common assignments. Night shifts caused sleep debt, reduced sleep quality, and increased medical errors, linking rotating shifts to anxiety and depression. Nurses on 8-hour shifts reported better job satisfaction and health than those on 12-hour shifts. The study found no significant link between perceived stress and working hours (p-value = 0.605), but stress negatively affected nurses’ quality of life. Long or irregular shifts led to reduced patient safety, unfinished tasks, fatigue, disrupted sleep, and health problems like musculoskeletal disorders. These factors contributed to job dissatisfaction, burnout, absenteeism, and staffing challenges. Qualitative findings revealed that while nurses preferred 12-hour shifts for more family time, they found them stressful and exhausting. Long hours in 24/7 facilities disrupted sleep schedules, leading to poor sleep quality and duration. Economic pressures and tight schedules further reduced sleep, and a lack of awareness about sleep’s importance caused nurses to prioritize other activities over rest. Fatigue impacted job performance, affected communities, and increased errors in patient care. The study highlighted the essential role of nurses as the primary caregivers in healthcare. Managing medication and monitoring recovery requires constant attention, making continuous work without rest impractical. It stressed the importance of shifts to help nurses manage stress, prevent burnout, and perform effectively. To improve work-life balance, the study recommended giving nurses more time for rest, social activities, and exercise. Promoting breaks, mentoring less-experienced nurses, and involving managers and clinicians in providing support were suggested. Hospitals were advised to ensure safe shift practices for both staff and patients. Leadership efforts should include reviewing safety practices, addressing staff concerns, and offering ongoing education to enhance skills and patient care. To reduce fatigue, the study proposed revising staffing models, minimizing overtime, optimizing workflows, and using technology for better planning. Finally, it emphasized prioritizing patient safety over maximizing productivity, even if it incurs higher costs. This study concluded that improving nurses’ work conditions is crucial for their well-being and the overall quality of healthcare. By addressing stress, burnout, and safety concerns, hospitals can ensure a healthier, more effective nursing workforce while maintaining high standards of patient care.

Walker, J., and de la Mare, Gwynneth (1971). <i>Brit. J. industr. Med.,</i> 28, 36-44. Absence from work in relation to length and distribution of shift hours. A long period on night shift or even permanent night work has sometimes been suggested for those on continuous shift work to allow circadian rhythms to adapt. As the weekly hours of work have been reduced there is some evidence that a permanent night shift is practical, and about 12% of all shift workers are on this type of work. However, the case for permanent night shift must be established on grounds of both effectiveness and acceptability. The present study compares the absence experience, including sickness absence, of permanent day workers and permanent night workers matched for age and job in three undertakings which contained a range of working conditions. The question of the relationship between absence from work and total hours worked including overtime has been reopened, and in comparing absence from work according to the type of shift the total hours worked must also be taken into account. The relationship between the average hours when a man was at work and the amount of absence was tested. The men in the three undertakings worked a wide range of voluntary overtime. The results showed that in two undertakings long-term absence, mainly sickness absence, was higher on the night shift than on the day shift; and, in the third, absence was about the same on the two shifts. As the work load was less in the two undertakings with a higher absence on the night shift it was suggested that selective factors were operating. These results may be contrasted to studies which have compared the absence of rotating shift workers and day workers. In all three undertakings there was a tendency for absence to be less among high overtime workers than among those who worked medium or small amounts of overtime, although the trends were not consistent. There was no evidence at all that high overtime and absence from work were positively associated. The implications of these results are discussed.