Shift-working on repeat: how can nurses avoid physical burnout?

Many nurses talk of emotional burnout, but there can be debilitating physical symptoms too. Can years of nursing shifts cause them and how we can protect the workforce?

Almost nine years ago I was working a clinical shift in an urgent treatment centre when I became unwell.

I finished my shift early, my colleagues picked up my remaining patients and I headed home thinking: ‘What just happened to me?’ I felt like I had been hit by the proverbial bus.

Physical symptoms that lasted six months

I got home, headed to bed and thought: ‘I’ll be okay in the morning.’ But I wasn’t.

What followed was six months off sick from work, under the