2024

Karhula, Kati; Shiri, Rahman; Koskinen, Aki; Turunen, Jarno; Ropponen, Annina; Sallinen, Mikael; Härmä, Mikko

Introduction In Finland, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) has issued national evidence-based recommendations for shift ergonomics using a traffic light analogy. The ergonomic shift scheduling recommendations have been integrated into shift scheduling software in the public health care sector. To date, the effects of the use of these recommendations on the perceived wellbeing of employees have not been studied. We aimed to investigate whether the use of shift schedule evaluation tool with ergonomic recommendations influences the wellbeing of healthcare workers. Participants and methods Survey data from the Finnish Public Sector study were combined into four cohorts consisting of two consecutive waves: 1) hospital districts: in years 2015 and 2017 (n=1943), 2) municipalities 2016 and 2018 (n=5291), 3) hospital districts 2017 and 2019 (n=1966), and 4) municipalities 2018 and 2020 (n=4311). Data from the Titania® shift scheduling software were used to define the use of the shift schedule evaluation tool in the year preceding the survey wave. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression was used to calculate a propensity score for each participant. The propensity score represented the probability of receiving an intervention, i.e., having (intervention group, IG) or not having (control group, CG) the shift schedule evaluation used by the shift planner. The regression model included several covariates such as demographic and lifestyle factors as well as working hour characteristics. The wellbeing outcomes studied were sleep duration, sleep difficulties, psychological distress, general health, and work ability. We used a generalized linear model to compare the outcomes of interest between the IG and the CG. Results The shift schedule evaluation tool was used for an average of 88 minutes in the municipalities and 9 minutes in the hospitals, covering 52% of the 8879 employees (88% females) who had complete data on the tool and the outcomes at follow-up. The preliminary analysis indicated that in the municipalities, the employees in the IG were less likely to perceive their health and work ability as poor than those in the CG. There were no significant differences between the IG and CG of the hospital employees nor were there any differences in the other outcome variables independent of the employer. Conclusions The preliminary results suggest that the use of the shift schedule evaluation tool with ergonomic recommendations improves the perceived health and workability among municipal healthcare workers. Large differences between the municipalities and hospitals in the use of the shift schedule evaluation tool may explain the differences in their results.