Diet and Health Implications of Night Shift Nursing

Abstract

The nursing profession is heavily saturated with long hours and night shifts. Oftentimes new nurses spend months to years working on the night shift which influences biological processes such as the circadian rhythm. Their eating habits, digestion, sleep, and metabolism are all affected. Using the platform Google Forms, night shift nurses from the past and those currently working the night shift were questioned on their night shift experience, focusing on their diet and dietary habits. After the data collection was analyzed in Google Sheets, I drew conclusions and found trends among the participants. There were forty participants due to method limitations, but the participants showed many negative implications of being a night worker. In order to evaluate multiple perspectives from the participants, there were two groups of participants. The first consisted of nurses currently working the night shift, and the second group had nurses that have worked the night shift in the past but no longer do. Current night shift nurses were negatively impacted the most, but to my surprise, there were still dietary implications for those who do not work the night shift currently. For the most part, both groups of participants’ diets and overall health had declined; something needs to be done to help those helping us.