We Brake for Breaks

Purpose:
To investigate the effect of a 30-minute scheduled break on perceived end-of-shift fatigue and nurse job satisfaction scores.

Background/Significance:
Nurse fatigue and the inability of nurses to take a work break are well-documented factors in increased safety errors. Current organizational nursing cultures do not recognize the importance of work breaks and its effect on nursing satisfaction scores. This proposal will attempt to change the cultural attitudes related to the importance of work breaks through education, management facilitated scheduled breaks, and promotion of alternative healthy promoting break activities.

Methods:
Like-function units were combined to ensure similar sized groups, and 3 units randomly selected as intervention groups. A one-group pretest-posttest measures approach was used. Participants provided data at 10 months prior to study (NDNQI 2010), one week prior to study (Zoomerang), and 3 weeks after the study (NDNQI 2011). All participants reported perceived end-of-shift fatigue after each shift worked in a 30-day period.

Results:
This community hospital reported experiencing fatigue 51% of the time regardless of care setting. This study did not find a difference in the perceived fatigue levels of intervention or control units to be different. The intervention did not appear to improve perceived end-of-shift fatigue or show a difference in job satisfaction/work enjoyment on NDNQI job enjoyment survey. Study participants reported increased awareness concerning breaks and a healthy work environment. The 2011 NDNQI RN survey for this hospital reported the percentage of nurses taking a greater than/or equal to 30-minute break to be above the national benchmark for like sized hospitals, including magnet hospitals.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
Nurses identified multiple self-imposed barriers that prevented taking responsibility-free work breaks within each unit's unique culture, along generation/experience subsets. Further research is needed to evaluate the role leadership plays through facilitation of meal and non-meal breaks.