Shift work: what cost?

Although not a classic systematic review, this paper makes a valuable contribution to our awareness of the research that has been undertaken exploring the effects of shift work on ambulance staff's health and well-being, and any associated risks to the patient's safety in prehospital care.

The authors identify that managing the physical and psychological demands of prehospital care is a growing challenge, especially given the increased workload due to high numbers of requests for emergency ambulance services, and it is important that ambulance crews have adequate rest and sufficient recovery time in-between shifts in order to function safely and effectively.

Shift work has been extensively researched in other health disciplines yet there is a dearth of research relating to paramedics and shift work.

The authors of this review conducted comprehensive searches in a variety of electronic databases including Cochrane: CINAHL; Medline and AMED. The paper outlines their search strategy, search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria. In total, their literature search identified 226 articles, but only nine papers met the inclusion criteria; however Sofianopoulos et al (2012) note that a further three papers were sourced from the references in the reviewed papers.