Improving Night Shift Nurses' Health and Reducing Burnout

A Pilot, Feasibility Study to Improve Night Shift Nurses' Health and Reduce Burnout

Healthy and happy nurses are essential to ensuring optimal patient outcomes and organizational success. The evidence on the negative impacts of night shift on nurses' health and cognitive function, and their implications on patient outcomes and organizational costs, reflect the need for interventions to mitigate these detrimental outcomes.

This pilot, feasibility, clinical trial will examine the feasibility of two fatigue countermeasure interventions (access to napping/relaxation room and use of blue/green light blocking glass during night shift) and explore the interventions effects on nurses' health, missed care, and burnout.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Access to napping/relaxation room; Other: Blue and green light blocking glasses

Detailed Description

Aim 1 (Primary): Examine the feasibility of a larger study and hospital-wide implementation of two fatigue countermeasure interventions (access to napping/relaxation rooms and use of blue/green light blocking glass during night shift).

Aim 2 (Exploratory): Explore the effects of the interventions on melatonin levels, overall health, sleep, fatigue, cognitive function, missed care, nurse burnout, and salivary melatonin levels.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15232
      • UPMC Shadyside

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being a registered nurse at UPMC Shadyside (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Working full-time night or rotating shifts
• Willing to wear a Fitbit around-the-clock during the study
• Willing to use nap/relaxation room and glasses only when assigned to that condition
• Willing to provide saliva samples

Exclusion Criteria:

• Having a diagnosed sleep disorder (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, or shift work disorder)
• Currently being treated for a serious mental illness
• Needing to use eye glasses to complete work related activities (note: contact lenses are acceptable)
• Use of prescription or over-the-counter sleep aides including melatonin

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Single group, crossover - order of the interventions to be randomly selected; All participants will receive the same interventions which includes access to the napping/relaxation room only intervention, blue and green light blocking glasses only intervention, and the combined intervention. There will be a two-week washout between the interventions. The order of the interventions will be randomized to one of the following options: Napping/relaxation room, blue and green light blocking glasses, combined; Blue and green light blocking glasses, napping/relaxation room, combined; Napping/relaxation room, combined, blue and green light blocking glasses; Blue and green light blocking glasses, combined, napping/relaxation room; Combined, napping/relaxation room, blue and green light blocking glasses; Combined, blue and green light blocking glasses, napping/relaxation room

Behavioral: Access to napping/relaxation room; During the night shift, study participants will have access to the hospital unit's napping/relaxation room with a sound machine, diffusers for aromatherapy, a massage chair that can be used for napping, and snacks.; Other: Blue and green light blocking glasses; During the night shift, participants will be asked wear study-provided blue and green light blocking glasses.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Recruitment rate	Number of potential participants screened in order to enroll 8 participants	2 months
Attrition rate	Percentage of enrolled participants completing the intervention as a whole and its three conditions	4 months
Completeness of questionnaire responses	Percentage of completed responses	4 months
Melatonin collection	Number of salivary melatonin samples collected	4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in physical health between baseline and the three conditions	Changes the in PROMIS Global Health 10-item Measure, Physical Health sub-scale T-score. T-score ranges from 16.2 to 67.7 with 50.0 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent better physical health.	3 months
Changes in mental health between baseline and the three conditions	Changes the in PROMIS Global Health 10-item Measure, Mental Health sub-scale T-score. T-score ranges from 21.2 to 67.6 with 50.0 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent better mental health.	3 months
Changes in Multidimensional Sleep Health between baseline and the three conditions	Changes in RSATED survey scores Total score ranges from 0 to 12 with higher scores representing better sleep health.	3 months
Changes in sleep distrubance between baseline and the three conditions	Changes in PROMIS Sleep Disturbance 8-item Measure T-scores. T-score ranges from 28.9 to 76.5.7 with 50.0 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent more sleep disturbances.	3 months
Changes in sleep-related impairment between baseline and the three conditions	Changes in PROMIS Sleep-related Impairment 8-item Measure T-scores. T-score ranges from 30.2 to 80.1 with 50.0 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent more sleep-related impairment.	3 months
Change in sleep duration between baseline and the three conditions	Change in mean actigraphic sleep duration	3 months
Change in sleep efficiency between baseline and the three conditions	Change in mean actigraphic sleep efficiency	3 months
Change in fatigue between baseline and the three conditions	Change in PROMIS Fatigue 7-item Measure T-scores. T-score ranges from 29.4 to 83.2 with 50.0 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent more fatigue.	3 months
Change in cognition function between baseline and the three conditions	Change in PROMIS Cognitive Function 8-item Measure T-scores. T-score ranges from 22.41 to 83.2 with 63.48 (standard deviation of 10) being the population mean. Higher scores represent better cognitive function.	3 months
Change in burnout between baseline and the three conditions	Change in Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scores. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory has three sub-scales measuring personal burnout, work-related burnout, and client-related burnout. Sub-scales scores range from 0 to 100 with higher scores representing greater burnout.	3 months
Changes in missed care between baseline and the three conditions	Changes in Tasks Undone-12 Scale scores. Scores range from 0 to 12 with higher scores representing more undone nursing tasks.	3 months
Changes in salivary melatonin levels between baseline and the three conditions	Changes in salivary melatonin levels	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh
• Collaborators: Shadyside Hospital Foundation

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 23, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 29, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 11, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 11, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): February 17, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 21, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 18, 2026
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Fatigue; Sleep; Burnout; Night shift
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior; Signs and Symptoms; Burnout, Psychological; Fatigue; RID
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY24090069

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Final data sets from the research may be shared.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: A Limited Dataset (LDS) may be created and shared pursuant to a Data Use Agreement (DUA) appropriately limiting use of the dataset and prohibiting the recipient from identifying or re-identifying (or taking steps to identify or re-identify) any individual whose data are included in the dataset.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No