Abstract: Objective: To explore the status and influencing factors of occupational fatigue of nurses in operating rooms in China. Methods: A total of 1122 nurses from nine tertiary hospitals in eastern, central and western China were recruited using convenient sampling. They were investigated with general questionnaire, occupational fatigue exhaustion recovery scale and job content scale. Results: Job demand, job control, daily overtime hours, monthly total income, daily sleep time, social support, marital status, position and region accounted for 32.4% of the variation of acute fatigue. Job demand, job control, daily overtime hours, region and social support accounted for 24.2% of the variation of chronic fatigue. Job demand, job control, daily overtime hours, region, social support, daily sleep time, work pattern and position accounted for 26.5% of the variation of intershift recovery. Conclusion: Managers should develop tailored interventions to alleviate the occupational fatigue of nurses in operating rooms and promote their physical and mental health, so as to ensure the safety of patients and improve the nursing quality.

Key words: operating room nurses; occupational fatigue; acute fatigue; chronic fatigue; inter-shift recovery; influencing factors