Iran Occupational Health

  Background and Aims

  Shift work is an inevitable result of technology usage and considered as an occupational hazard. It is known as an old problem among health care workers, which affects their wellbeing adversely. Operation room technicians (ORTs) are among those health care workers who are required to work in shift system and encountered shift work-related problems. This study was conducted among ORTs of Shiraz University Of Medical Sciences (SUMS) hospitals with the aim of determination of shift work-related health, family and social problems.

  Methods

  In this cross-sectional study, SOS (survey of shift workers) questionnaire was used to  collect required data. Study population included all ORTs of SUMS hospitals in 2006-2007. Totally, 178 ORTs from 9 SUMS hospitals were studied.

  Results

  The results showed that shift work-related problems occurred in high rate among ORTs. Personal (subjective), gastrointestinal and social problems were found to be the most prevalent problems among the ORTs (97.6%, 70.7% and 66.5%, respectively). The results revealed that ORTs who chose shift work voluntarily had higher rate of job satisfaction. It was also found that regular rotating shift schedule caused more job satisfaction than irregular rotating shift schedule did. There was an association between job satisfaction and the prevalence of reported problems such that the prevalence rate of problems was lower among those with higher rate of job satisfaction (P<0.05). This study demonstrated that there was no regular, definite shift system in operating rooms of the 9 SUMS hospital studied.

  Conclusion

  Working in shift system voluntarily and regular schedule caused higher rate of job  satisfaction. Higher job satisfaction resulted in less shift work-related problems.