Abstract
Nursing aides is one profession that is dominated by shift work as care needs to be provided 24 hour a day and 7 days a week. To date, there is limited information about how the physical and postural demands vary across different shifts—different lengths and times. Fifty-four nursing aides from local long-term health care facilities were observed for an entire shift to document the whole body postural response and physical activities. The results indicate a very active demand for nursing aides on the 8-hr day shift and a more sedentary demand on 8-hr and 12-hr night shifts. The discomfort felt by the nursing aides appeared to be more related to the job demands rather than the length of exposure (e.g. not that much difference between 8-hr and 12-hr shifts).
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