Relationship between the circadian types and nurses’ caring behaviours

    Introduction: Caring is the most important feature of the nursing profession and provides a crucial role in improving the patient’s health, process of recovery and their satisfaction. Circadian type is defined as the capability of individuals to adapt to shift works. Nurses’ performance in caring the patients can be potentially under the influence of their circadian type. Based on that, the present study was performed to examine the relationship between circadian types and nurses’ caring behaviours .   Materials and Methods : In this descriptive correlative study, 573 nurses were participated from different hospital units associated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences and based on the clustering method. The data were collected from morning and evening types (MEQ) and caring behaviour questionnaires (CBI), and analysed by one-way ANOVA , Kruskal Wallis , Pearson correlation and independent t-tests using SPSS software .   Results : The findings showed a significant relationship between circadian types and caring behaviour subscales with the exception of attentiveness to other’s experience subscale. Furthermore, the caring behaviours of fixed-morning shift nurses were more professional and effective than those of rotation and fixed-night shift nurses.   Conclusion : A significant relationship between circadian types and caring behaviours showed that morning types have better caring behaviours than evening types. Because evening type nurses usually show lower emotional balance and self-esteem compared to those of morning types, therefore, providing them with more attention and training can increase their qualifications and skilfulness in caring patients. Furthermore, it is important to consider nurses’ circadian type in determining their work shifts.