Poor dietary behaviors among hospital nurses in Seoul, South Korea

BackgroundNurses reportedly practice unhealthy behaviors due to unfavorable work schedules. Korean nurses are particularly vulnerable to dietary and health behaviors due to high patient-to-nurse ratios; however, there are few studies on Korean hospital nurses' health behaviors.PurposeTo investigate the dietary and health behaviors of Korean hospital nurses according to their work schedule type.MethodThis was a cross-sectional descriptive study using survey data from 340 hospital nurses. Nurses' dietary and health behaviors were evaluated across different work schedules and compared to the general Korean female population.ResultsNurses with rotating night shift schedules were more often underweight than nurses without night shifts and had more unhealthy dietary behaviors, such as skipping breakfast and eating late night snacks. Nonetheless, Korean nurses practiced healthy behaviors, such as engaging actively in physical activity.ConclusionsHospitals should create policies to provide healthy schedules for nurses to mitigate the negative effects of rotating and night shifts. However, these management-led measures will be effective only if individual nurses realize and take responsibility for their health behaviors and choices.