Abstract
BackgroundSeveral studies have established impaired sleep is a common problem among nurses. Overworked, fatigued and stressed nurses are at a higher risk of making mistakes that threaten patient safety as well as their own health. The aim of the present study was to longitudinally monitor the development of sleep quality in nurses, starting from the last semester at the university, with three subsequent annual follow-ups once the nurses had entered working life.Methodology/Principal FindingsNationwide, longitudinal questionnaire study of nursing students and newly qualified nurses in Sweden. The results imply a continuous decline in sleep quality among nurses during the three years of follow-up, starting from their last semester of nursing education and continuing for three years into their working life. The most pronounced short-term decline in sleep quality seems to occur in the transition between student life and working life.Conclusion/SignificanceThis finding is important since it may affect the quality of care and the health of nurses negatively.
Highlights
Several studies have established that nursing is a stressful profession [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] and stressful working conditions for nurses have been suggested to be influential on sick leave [8], turnover rates and the likelihood of leaving the job [9,10]
Coherent with the statement that nursing is a stressful profession, studies have reported that fatigue due to inadequate or impaired sleep is a common problem among nurses [4,22,23,24]
The most pronounced short-term decline in sleep quality seems to occur in the transition between student life and working life
Summary
Several studies have established that nursing is a stressful profession [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] and stressful working conditions for nurses have been suggested to be influential on sick leave [8], turnover rates and the likelihood of leaving the job [9,10]. Impaired recovery seems to be an important mediator between stress and different kinds of ill health and diseases Both acute and chronic stress has been found to be associated with subjective and objective measures of impaired sleep and recovery [17,18,19,20,21]. Overworked, fatigued and stressed nurses are at a higher risk of making mistakes that threaten patient safety [25,26] Their condition may affect levels of sickness absenteeism or job turnover and thereby making it difficult to maintain adequate levels of health care staffing, reducing quality of care and threatening patient outcomes [10,27,28]. The aim of the present study was to longitudinally monitor the development of sleep quality in nurses, starting from the last semester at the university, with three subsequent annual follow-ups once the nurses had entered working life
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