Sleep Quality of Online Doctor of Nursing Practice Students

Abstract

Sleep problems are common among university students and approximately one third of the general population; however, little is known about the sleep quality of online Doctor of Nursing (DNP) students, and whether the flexible schedule offered by online programs helps support students to adopt a healthy sleep pattern. Guided by the Orem’s theory of self care and deficit, underpinned by DNP essentials, this DNP project examined the sleep quality of online DNP students before and after starting doctoral studies and the factors that influence their sleep quality. Two surveys: 1). Cross-sectional survey, and 2). Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to collect data from Aspen University – DNP online students. Results suggest that the sleep quality of online DNP students is impacted by their studies. These findings suggest that online DNP students are not immune to the sleep problems that commonly plague brick and mortar university students. There may be a correlation between online studies and sleep quality, but further studies are needed to confirm this relationship. Application of this project and its findings is useful to the nursing profession and to other online programs. An effort may be to institute a health promotion strategy to assess the sleep quality of new incoming online students, followed by re-assessment at interval(s) throughout the programs. This health promotion strategy may provide the online student insight to their sleep quality that may lead to self- care intervention.