ArticleBMC nursing2019
Working hour characteristics and schedules among nurses in three Nordic countries - a comparative study using payroll data.
Article in BMC nursing, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Night shift work and breast cancer risk in healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of Shift Work Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Shift Schedule With Fewer Short Daily Rest Periods and Sickness Absence Among Health Care Workers: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Working time traffic light recommendations: development, use, and implementation in the Finnish social and healthcare.Industrial health · 2026Article
- Working Hour Characteristics and Risk of Occupational Accidents - A Case-crossover Study of the Retail Sector.Safety and health at work · 2026Article
- Associations between shift work characteristics and work-related accidents and dozing off: combining objective working-time register and retrospective survey data.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2026Article
- Remote work - the new normal needs more research.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2025Article
- Night shift work and breast cancer risk - 2023 update of epidemiologic evidence.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2025Review
- Airport security personnel's working hour characteristics and associations with sickness absence-a retrospective cohort study in 2016-2019.Industrial health · 2025Article
- Factors Associated with Work Life Balance Among Nurses in Hospitals: A Socio-Ecological Scoping Review.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Review
- Concurrent Trajectories of Objectively Measured Insufficient Recovery and Workload Among a Cohort of Shift Working Hospital Employees: Quantitative Empirical Research.Nursing open · 2024Article
- Balancing act: exploring work-life balance among nursing home staff working long shifts.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- Working hours and health - key research topics in the past and future.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024Review
- Sleep quality and the need for recovery among nurses working irregular shifts: A cross-sectional study.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Impact of sleep-wake features on fatigue among female shift work nurses.Annals of medicine · 2023Article
- Work unit level personnel working hours and the patients' length of in-hospital stay-An administrative data approach.PLOS digital health · 2023Article
- The Prolonged Effect of Shift Work and the Impact of Reducing the Number of Nightshifts on Arterial Stiffness-A 4-Year Follow-Up Study.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2023Article
- Sequence analysis of the combinations of work shifts and absences in health care - comparison of two years of administrative data.BMC nursing · 2022Article
- Analysis and mapping of global research publications on shift work (2012-2021).Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2022Article
- Night Work and Sustainable Working Life-A Prospective Trajectory Analysis of Swedish Twins.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOrganisation of working hour schedules in the Northern European countries are rather similar. EU countries are obliged to adopt national legislation regarding duration of weekly working hours and rest periods. Yet, working hour characteristics and schedules are likely to differ with respect to starting times and duration depending e.g. on culture and tradition. Yet, very little is known about potential differences between shifts and schedules across countries among nursing personel. This knowledge is relevant, since the potential differences in working hour characteristics may influence and possibly explain some of the differences observed in studies of health and safety.The aim of the study was to compare characteristics of working hours and work schedules among nursing personel in three Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Norway.
methodsThe study populations included nursing personnel holding a ≥ 50% position at public hospitals in Denmark (
resultsNight shifts generally started earlier and lasted longer in Finland (10-11 h starting at 20:00-22:59) than in Norway (10 h starting at 21:00-21:59) and in Denmark (8 h starting at 23:00-23:59). Very long shifts (≥12 h) were more common in Denmark (12%) compared to Finland (8%) and Norway (3%). More employees had many (> 13/year) quick returns in Norway (64%) and Finland (47%) compared to Denmark (16%). The frequency of 3-shift rotation workers was highest in Norway (41%) and lower in Denmark (22%) and Finland (22%). There were few differences across the countries in terms of early morning shifts and (very) long weekly working hours.
conclusionDespite similar distribution of operational hours among nurses in the three countries, there were differences in working hour characteristics and the use of different types of work schedules. The observed differences may affect health and safety.
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