Date of Award

2014

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.Sc.

Department

Nursing

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences, Fatigue, Patient safety, Student clinical hours, Student nurses, Student well being, Student work demands

Supervisor

Freeman, Michelle

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore fatigue in second year nursing students at a university in southwestern Ontario. The study examined the perceptions of fatigue at the end of clinical consolidation in second year and the predictors of fatigue. A sample of 66 undergraduate nursing students completed a demographic questionnaire and the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER) scale. Findings revealed that nursing students experienced moderate levels of fatigue with low inter-shift recovery. More than half of participants felt exhausted at work. The majority of participants reported having no energy left after a typical work period. Over half indicated they often felt fatigued from the end of one shift to the start of another. Student role demands and being a night person chronotype were predictors of fatigue. Further research is recommended to examine the impact of student nurse fatigue on patient safety, student nurse well-being and retention.

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