The impact of night shift on the psychological and physical health of nurses in Tikrit city hospitals

The aim of the study is to determine the factors that affect the physical, psychological and social health of nurses working at night. Sample of this cross sectional descriptive study included 100 nurses working on the night-shift system in hospitals in Tikrit, Iraq. Data were collected using by the Personal Information Form and the Copenhagen Occupational and Mental Health Scale Questionnaire. In evaluating the data; the number, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used. The majority of the study sample (68%) was female, the remainder male, and most of nurse were between the ages of 25 and 34 (37%) and single (%55), nursing graduates. According to the search results; It was determined that (40%) of the sample believe that their direct supervisor gives little priority to job satisfaction. It has been determined that working in the night shift negatively affects the private lives of the nurses, where they take too much time they were stressed most of their time, felt emotional exhaustion, were irritable, and 21% of nurses were exposed to the threat of physical violence in the workplace. As a result of the research it has been reported that night shift work has a significant psychosocial effect among nurses in the working environment. The study recommends developing a training program that is compatible with improving the quality of life and investing in the positive aspects of nursing Keywords: night shift, nursing, psychological health, psychial health, sleep disorders