A new study by Victoria University doctoral student Alexia Pavlis, suggests that rotating shift workers who have worked a minimum of three years in their current shift experience few if any impairments to their memory and attention skills, as a result their shift schedules.

The study was undertaken with two groups of female nurses working in public hospitals in Melbourne, one group working rotating night shifts, the other permanent day shift. It is entitled: 'Cognitive, Neuroanatomical and Neuroendocrine Effects of Long-Term Rotating Shift Work in a Nursing Sample'.

Alexia said: "Previous research with flight attendants has suggested that work schedules that cause chronic sleep disruption result in problems with the internal body clock, leading to difficulties with memory and attention. Rotating shift workers such as nurses are also at risk of developing symptoms that are similar to those observed in international aircrew with jet lag, including poor attention and concentration."

"Our study used a range of cognitive response tests and Magnetic Resonance Imaging to investigate whether work-related sleep disruption caused similar effects among nurses working rotating shifts. Our results suggest that long-term shift working nurses do not experience these kinds of difficulties."

"Despite our research findings, shift workers still reported that they slept less on average, and felt more tired and less vigorous than non shift workers."

"Fatigue may therefore still affect the shift workers' ability to perform to their optimum levels at work, even in the absence of any measurable differences between the two groups."

"Changes to the regulation of shift work have led to a reduction in people working unsafe shifts, and in general better control and awareness of the effects of fatigue in the workplace. However, people must subject themselves to potentially unhealthy work practices in order to see whether they are able to cope with rotating shifts."

"Future research should look at functional imaging in potential shift workers in order to screen for 'good adapters'. Studies in sleep deprived participants suggest that consistent, individual functional changes are likely to exist."

"Ideally, studies in this area should take a long-term approach and follow workers during the development of their careers. This would enable researchers to measure change in thought processes and brain functioning over time, as well as develop screening tools to identify those workers who will be well suited to shift work."