OBJECTIVETo explore the situation of quality of life (QOL) of nurses working in night shifts and the major factors influencing the QOL, and to provide scientific basis of the further effective intervention for the quality of life.

METHODSThe nurses working in night shift were sampled randomly in Grade 3A-hospitals of Tianjin, and investigated using WHO Quality of Life-BREF Scale.

RESULTSThree hundred eighty five questionnaires were collected from 398 questionnaires. The average score of subjective QOL perception was 2.90 (the full score is 5), subjective health perception was 2.64 (the full score is 5). The score of physical domain of QOL was 13.21 +/- 2.18; psychological domain of QOL was 13.38 +/- 2.28; social domain of QOL was 14.71 +/- 2.32; environmental domain of QOL was 11.36 +/- 2.31, all of which were significantly lower than norm value (P<0.01). The results analyzed by ordinal logistic regression showed that the factors affecting physical domain of QOL were years of working experience, sleep time, gastrointestinal disorders, family harmony status and regular diet; the factors affecting psychological domain of QOL were family harmony status and gastrointestinal disorders; the factors affecting social domain of QOL were the nature of nursing work and family harmony status; the factors affecting environmental domain of QOL were job title, sleep time, gastrointestinal disorders and regular diet.

CONCLUSIONThe QOL of nurses working in night shifts is lower than that of general people. The corresponding measures should be taken to raise the quality of life of nurses in night shifts.