Question

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decides to look at reports of how hospital nurse schedules relate to how frequently incidents occur. They notice that hospitals that have 10-hour shifts for nurses have 26% fewer incidents on average than hospitals that have 12-hour shifts. They reason that a nurse is more tired toward the end of a 12-hour shift. How could this research most benefit patients?
Patients can look for hospitals that have 12-hour shifts.
Patients can reduce interactions with a nurse who is near the end of a shift.
Nurses may know that they are tired and can try to be more alert.
Hospitals may change the shift structure to try to reduce the number of incidents.

Answer 1

Hospitals may change the shift structure to try to reduce the number of incidents.

Reason: system-level changes (shorter shifts or different scheduling) address nurse fatigue directly and can reduce incidents for many patients. The other options (patients avoiding nurses at shift end, nurses just trying to be more alert, or patients choosing hospitals by shift length) are impractical or unlikely to be as effective.