Background:

nurses' work, due to its nature and content, integrates the physical and emotional dimensions, having amongst other risk factors, exposure to rotate and night shifts. Objective: to assess the impact of shift work on nurses' health.

Methodology:

in the period from 21st to 28th of February 2020, the authors carried out an integrative literature review in the MEDLINE and CINAHL databases, and selected articles published until February 2020.Articles published in the last 5 years were selected, which portrayed the performance of nurses in a context of shift work and assessed the impact on their health.

Results:

the main changes detected with shift work in nurses' performance are changes in sleep, mental health, metabolism and job satisfaction. We identified statistically significant relationships (p <0.05) between shift work hours and depression, Burnout, sleep quality, as well as a high prevalence of Shift Work Disorder in nurses.

Conclusion:

shift work nurses are more likely to experience sleep problems, fatigue, depression and burnout when compared to nurses who have regular daytime shifts.