What history can teach those working the hospital night shift
A pioneering study led by Â鶹´«Ã½ is looking into the history of the night shift on hospital wards, exploring how the UK can create better, safer working conditions for hospital workers.
29 July 2026
Dr Kristin Hussey, Lecturer in Environmental History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, has received £1.29 million from Wellcome to produce the first history of the hospital night shift in England and Scotland. As well as examining the social history of the night shift going back 175 years, the study will investigate the experiences and the challenges of today's hospital night workers and identify ways to drive practical change across the NHS.
This grant comes from the Wellcome’s highly competitive Career Development Award, which aims to drive innovation across all branches of the sciences and humanities.
The project, entitled The Night Shift 1850-Present: Reimaging Sleep, Work and Wellbeing for Healthcare Professionals in English and Scottish Hospitals, will explore how long-standing work cultures have normalised unsafe and unsustainable working conditions for doctors, nurses and ward-based support workers, such as healthcare assistants and porters.
As part of her research, Kristin will be hiring postdocs later this year.
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I’m excited to be able to demonstrate that humanities research can make a real-world, practical contribution to health and wellbeing.