The night in the nursing profession: a sociological perspective

The night, or rather the nights in the plural, like the days, are not indifferent temporal containers of the activities of social formations. Identity which, as the authors of the classic studies on social times already observed, varies according to the people who exercise them, the places in which they are located and the moment of the night in which they take place (Sorokin, 1964; Zerubavel, 1982). The different durations and rhythms of the activities help to define the character of the nights. A job that is also carried out at night is that of the nurse, a fundamental role in the process of personal care in the most general sense of the term. The person is identified as an active agent in self-determination of health. Health deriving from levels of balance between several systemic components and based on the holistic vision of the person is a fundamental good and a collective social interest. Maintaining or promoting the health of the person requires careful consideration of all those elements that are a constitutive and integral part of it, including even exhausting night shifts. The debate in the literature on night care is not very rich: it is a little explored topic, even in Italy, perhaps because there is a widespread belief that the night mostly involves a bland patient surveillance job and does not particularly involve the nursing staff (Saiani, Brugnolli et al. 2018)In Italy the night, as time of difference, still exists, which is a positive result because quality is given by diversity also for time. A diversity that is not synonymous with marginality and which, in addition to soliciting studies that highlight its particularity, should suggest the launch of policies aimed at protecting its uniqueness for the professions that carry out their duty at night.