Impact of Night Shift on the Mental Health of Nurses

Melanie Akilova, Verrazzano Class of 2025, completed major in Nursing 

After conducting research and trying to find the perfect topic to develop a capstone on, I landed on mental health and the impact it holds on nurses who work the night shift. I was inspired by reading blogs and listening to stories on how some nurses do not enjoy working the night shift due to the impact it has on their mental and physical well-being.

I learned a lot while developing the paper and the poster and I would like to share this experience with others to prepare them for their capstone as a Verrazzano student.

Originally, I was lost on how to begin my research, what websites to look for, which articles to apply, and how to narrow down my search. I reached out to my mentor, Professor Hunton, in the Nursing department. She helped me tremendously in making this capstone come to life. My biggest advice to anyone starting their capstone is, do not wait until the last minute and research something you are interested in and passionate about!

My capstone highlights how disruption of sleep patterns can significantly impact a nurses’ wellbeing, causing them to feel burnout, increase the likelihood of making mistakes, and possibly struggle with mental health issues. I discovered that young and less experienced nurses are the most vulnerable population within nursing, which applies to me. To help minimize these effects for me as a new graduate nurse, I have learned that I need to have a consistent sleeping routine, even on days off, and practice relaxation techniques to ease the mind and body.

With all this information at hand, I had to sit down and put everything on paper which seemed easier said than done. After sorting out and trying to cut down bits and pieces of data, I found myself having a hard time meeting the 12-page count requirement, even when I thought this topic would be detail heavy enough to write continuously.

Throughout my capstone experience I learned the importance of mental health, which is a topic that is not discussed as openly as it should be. Devoting every single hour of my day to develop my paper showed me how dedicated I was in voicing this idea to the nursing community.

The most important takeaway is, always advocate for yourself and put your well-being before others. Feeling burnt out as a nurse is more likely to do harm than good and can put patients at risk. Taking a mental health day, learning how to say no, and going to sleep a few hours earlier on days of work can tremendously play a role in improving mental health.