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COMPRESSED - A Longitudinal Study of Compressed Work Schedules Within the Health, Care and Welfare Services

Not yet recruiting
Conditions
The Focus of the Study is Shift Work
Registration Number
NCT05784324
Lead Sponsor
Oslo Metropolitan University
Brief Summary

The aim of COMPRESSED is to investigate the potential consequences of a compressed work schedule within the municipal health, care and welfare services.

Detailed Description

The aim of COMPRESSED is to investigate the potential consequences of a compressed work schedule within the municipal health, care and welfare services.

A compressed work schedule is defined by an increase in numbers of hours per day, and a reduction of number of days per week. Compressed work schedules are advocated as a tool to reduce involuntary part-time contracts, and improve employee recruitment and retention, as well as improve employee health and quality of care.

However, the empirical support of such claims is limited, mixed, and suffers from several methodological shortcomings. There is a clear lack in studies investigating the potential moderating and mediating mechanisms, despite moderating variables such as shift intensity being likely to have an impact. In collaboration with unions and employers, COMPRESSED uses a longitudinal mixed method design, to investigate the short- and long-term consequences of compressed work schedules, as well as potential moderating and mediating variables. Each of the research questions will be addressed with complimentary methods in each of the work packages.

The project COMPRESSED will examine:

In-depth narrative interviews eliciting employees', employers', and patients'/users' own perceptions of consequences, moderators and mechanisms.

A retrospective intervention study using registry data, examining compressed work schedules implemented over the past 5 years.

A two year longitudinal survey looking at long-term effects and 4) a diary study across two weeks, looking at short-term effects.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
700000
Inclusion Criteria
  • Employed within the municipal health, care and welfare services.
Exclusion Criteria

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Mental health2027

Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-5)

Generell helse2027

The general health measure from the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (Ware, 1992)

Featigue2027

Fatigue General Fatigue scale from the Checklist of Individual Strength (CIS-20; Vercoulen et al., 1994)

Quality of care2027

From COPSOQ

Occupational commitment2027

(Tam, Korczynski, \& Frenkel, 2002)

Regestry-data2027

We will attempt to measure 1. Health, 2 recruitment and retention and 3. Quality of care, using registry data. And important part of the project will be to explore how these aspects are best measured using registry data. Their final operationalization is therefore not set.

Sickness absence2027

self-repport and regestry data

Intention to quit2027

(Kuvaas, 2006).

Care left undone2027

adapted from (Senek et al., 2020) and a measure by (Ball, Murrells, Rafferty, Morrow, \& Griffiths, 2014) informed by the validated Basel Extent of Rationing of Nursing scale (Schubert et al., 2008).

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
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