Impacts of nurses' circadian rhythm sleep disorders, fatigue, and depression on medication administration errors

The safety and quality of the administration of medications by nurses raise the opportunity to study risk factors such as circadian rhythm sleep disorders, fatigue, and depression. This study was conducted to explore the extent of nurses' circadian rhythm sleep disorders, fatigue, and depression and their impact on medication administration errors. Both approval from the hospital ethics committee and formal patient consent were obtained. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted using a demographic data sheet, a depression scale [CES-D], a modified fatigue severity scale, a medication errors observation sheet and an AASM two week sleep diary. The average number of medication errors per nurse per shift was 1.40 +/- 2. [Wrong time [and] wrong rate] were the most frequent medication errors [23.1% each]. About half [51.9%] of the nurses reported deficient sleep hours. Medication errors were negatively correlated with average working hours and positively correlated with depression score; errors peaked with irregular shift work patterns and irregular night sleep patterns in nurses with more than 4 night shifts in the preceding 2 weeks. Fatigue was significantly correlated with total depression score and significantly associated with deficient sleep hours. Additionally, the depression score was significantly affected by irregular sleep patterns. There were significant relationships between sleep medication intake and medication errors, depression, and fatigue. Linear regression analysis demonstrated that the independent predictors of medication errors were the number of patients under the nurses' direct care and the depression score of the nurses. Medication administration errors, fatigue and depression were all significantly affected by circadian sleep disorders. An administration's control of work flow to provide convenient sleep hours will help in improving sleep circadian rhythms and consequently minimize these problems

Relationship between leadership styles and emotional intelligence of head nurses at Mansoura University Hospitals

Leaders who are able to use emotions to guide decision making are able to motivate subordinates by engaging in activities facilitated by emotions and are able to encourage open minded idea generation, decision making and planning because they can consider multiple points of views. Aim: This study was conducted to explore the relationship between leadership styles and emotional intelligence of head nurses at Mansoura University Hospitals. A descriptive exploratory design was used for head nurses working in Oncology Hospital, Gastroenterology Hospital and Emergency Hospital [54 head nurses on the job]. Three tools were used for data collection: characteristics data sheet of the head nurses, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire [MLQ] and Leahy Emotional Schema Scale [LESS]. It revealed that emotional intelligence differed among the studied nurses in the three hospitals. A statistically significant relation was found between the studied head nurses' age and [sometimes] and "almost" use of transformational leadership style. There were no statistically significant relations between leadership styles and emotional intelligence of head nurses and their years of experience, and the emotional intelligence was not significantly correlated with leadership styles among the studied head nurses. It is recommended to provide the head nurses with needed support programs for adding emotional intelligence training to be happier, more committed to their organization, achieve greater success and perform better in the workplace in order to enhance their leadership style