ArticleJournal of advanced nursing2021
Did rest breaks help with acute fatigue among nursing staff on 12-h shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional study.
Article in Journal of advanced nursing, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Organizational interventions to support and promote the mental health of healthcare workers during pandemics and epidemics: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Latent Profiles of Nurses' Insomnia, Fatigue, Recovery, Psychological Distress and Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining the Role of Organisational Support.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- What alleviates the harmful effect of strain on recovery from work of 4478 health and social services workers? A cross-sectional study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Article
- COVID-19 pandemic: what factors compromised the mental capacity to work of nursing technicians?Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2024Article
- Sociotechnical Work System Approach to Occupational Fatigue.Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety · 2023Article
- Fatigue as a Cause of Professional Dissatisfaction Among Chinese Nurses in Intensive Care Unit During COVID-19 Pandemic.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2023Article
- Practices and Strategies of Health Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic-Between Limitations and Opportunities.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Did rest breaks help with acute fatigue among nursing staff on 12-h shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2021Article
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3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimThis study aimed to explore whether 30-min rest breaks were as effective at lowering acute fatigue among 12-h shift hospital nursing staff who cared for patients with COVID-19 as among those who did not.
designThe study was cross-sectional in design.
methodsData from the SAFE-CARE study collected online between May and June 2020 were used. A subsample (N = 338) comprised of nursing staff who reported working 12-h shifts, and providing direct patient care in hospitals was used in this study. Data on socio-demographics, work and rest breaks, and subjective measures of fatigue, psychological distress, sleep and health were used. Hierarchical multiple linear regression followed by stratified analyses was conducted to explore the relationships between rest breaks and acute fatigue among nursing staff groups with and without COVID-19 patient care.
resultsThe sample, on average, had high acute fatigue. Around 72% reported providing care to patients with COVID-19, and 71% reported taking rest breaks 'sometimes', 'often' or 'always'. In the group that cared for patients with COVID-19, there was no significant relationship between rest breaks and acute fatigue (p = .507). In the group that cared for patients hospitalized for other reasons, rest breaks were associated with lower acute fatigue (p = .010).
conclusionOur findings showed both the importance and inadequacy of rest breaks in reducing acute fatigue. The process of within-work recovery is complex, and routine rest breaks should be facilitated by nursing management on hospital units during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. IMPACT: Rest breaks may present an effective strategy in lowering fatigue. Although rest breaks were not associated with less fatigue among staff caring for patients with COVID-19, other co-workers experienced some fatigue recovery. For frontline nursing staff, routine rest breaks are encouraged, and a systematic evaluation pertaining the sufficiency of rest breaks during high work demands in future research is needed.
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