Investigation of interoceptive and extraoceptive effects of the shift system in healthcare professionals

The shift system adversely affects the body structure and functions due to the necessity of working in a time zone that does not comply with the rhythm of the body in daily life and can lead to physical and psychological health problems. Shift work also disrupts the sleep-wake cycle in health professionals, causing shortening of sleep, fatigue, emotional status disorder, prolongation of reaction time and interoceptive and exteroceptive effects. In particular, it adversely affects the health and safety of health professionals in terms of affecting their body structure and functions. The main objective of the study is to examine the interoceptive and exteroceptive effects of the shift system in the body in health professionals. A total of 56 volunteer health professionals aged 24-55 with less than 2 years of working experience were included in the study. The sociodemographic information of the participants was evaluated by the sociodemographic data form created by the researchers, by the Nelson Hand Reaction test and Psychomotor Vigilance Test for reaction time, by the Chalder Fatigue Scale for fatigue states, by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for emotional states, by the Pitsburg Sleep Quality Scale for sleep quality, and by the Body Awareness Questionnaire for body awareness levels. The data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 22.0 program. In the study, a statistically significant relationship was found between shift groups and fatigue Deciencies (p<0.05). There was no significant Deciency between the other variables and the shift groups (p<0.05). This study showed that there is a direct correlation between the shift groups of health professionals and fatigue Decencies, and this result is more related to psychosocial functions. It is important that the study shows that there is a need to Decipher the relationship between sleep quality, reaction time, body awareness, anxiety and depression between health professionals working in different fields and shift groups.