Date of Conferral
2020
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Cheryl Holly
Abstract
AbstractNurses provide continuous patient care around the clock. Nurses who work outside of the 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. hours are susceptible to fatigue and sleep deprivation that impair their attention to detail, ability to remain focused, information processing, and problem solving. This is especially prevalent among those who work the night shift. Nurses also find that their memory, reaction time, motivation, communication, mood, and empathy are affected with fewer hours of sleep. This project explored the sleepiness that night shift nurses experience and provides nurses with strategies to improve these symptoms. Nurses were provided with a PowerPoint presentation to promote awareness of the risks of sleep deprivation and how changing their lifestyle would benefit them. In developing this project, Pender’s health promotion model was used as the framework for this study. The Karolinska and Epworth Sleepiness Scales were used to measure the prevalence and intensity of night shift nurse sleepiness prior to the development of the educational program on how to manage sleepiness. The education program was presented to 86 nurses with pre intervention//post intervention education surveys that were completed by 62 nurses. Results indicated that participating nurses increased their knowledge of managing strategies for sleepiness. Post-intervention education for the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) showed that 87.09% of the participants claimed to be very alert to alert, a 35.47% increase from pre-intervention and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) showed that 79.03% participants were unlikely to be abnormally sleepy a 32.26% increase from pre-intervention. The findings of this project contribute to positive social change by improving nurses’ sleep health and the quality of patient care by making nurses more aware of night shift sleepiness and management strategies.
Recommended Citation
Garcia, Margaret Yvonne, "Guiding Nurses to a Healthier Lifestyle" (2020). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 10122.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/10122
