Implications for practice and research

• Differences between age, gender and clinical experience should be further explored in relation to alertness and overtime.

• Organisations should be aware of the risks to patient care when relying on overtime to cover staff shortages.

Context

Nurses are typically scheduled to work long rotating shifts and routinely incorporate overtime to allow hospitals to provide round-the-clock care to patients. This can exacerbate fatigue diminishing productivity and making nurses more prone to errors.1 Recent studies highlighted the association between nurses’ overtime and poor patient outcomes with a call for further research required.2 When studying the impact of overtime on alertness in rotating shifts, Min et al employed an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to allow …