THE IMPACT OF A CHANGE IN ROTATING SHIFT SCHEDULES - A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF 8, 10 AND 14 H WORK SHIFTS

A current United States trend in alternative work schedules is to incr ease the length of the workday while decreasing the number of days in the work week. Referred to as compressed work schedules (CWS), they ar e popular amongst shiftworkers although the longer work shifts may be associated with increased fatigue and may create additional risk of ac cidents and health problems in the workplace. The specific aim of the current study is to evaluate a CWS to better understand its influence on the sleep and fatigue of shiftworkers. A 10 h day/14 h night rotati ng CWS was introduced to a fire department to replace an 8 h, three sh ift rotating schedule. This study is comprised of an assessment of a 1 0 h day/14 h night rotating CWS and an evaluation of the impact of a c hange in work schedules, comparing 8 h shifts to the extended work per iods. The results of the current study revealed no significant differe nces between the compressed and non-compressed work schedules. Subject ive measures of sleepiness and mood were shown to increase over the co urse of the extended work shifts. Despite the increase, the CWS is dee med acceptable because it did not negatively impact on the workers who participated to a greater extent than when they worked on the non-com pressed schedule.